Title:HIS MAJESTY THE KING ARRIVING IN FRANCE DECEMBER 1939 [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BDY 12
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel footage showing the arrival in Boulogne of HM King George VI in Boulogne for his first official visit to France following the outbreak of war in September 1939.
Description: Views of the destroyer HMS Codrington, concentrating on the bridge, the foremast (where the Royal Standard is flying) and No. 1 funnel as she comes alongside a quay in Boulogne. Two French sailors loop the rope at the end of one of the destroyer's cables around a bollard (?) on the quay. A reception committee for the King led by General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, waits nearby. Views filmed when daylight is rapidly fading of HMS Codrington, notably the aft quadruple torpedo tubes and the Royal Navy White Ensign flying from the mainmast as Gort's party goes on board and the deckhouse aft from which the King and his small entourage are seen emerging. The cameraman is close to the gangway which King George VI uses to come ashore but daylight has practically disappeared. The Royal guest and Lord Gort are shrouded in darkness as they walk along the quay; HMS Codrington, especially the searchlight platform between the two sets of torpedo tubes, the two single Vickers 2-pounder pom pom guns on the platform just aft of No. 2 funnel and the 4.7-inch gun between the two funnels, can be seen much more clearly. A large French Tricolour flies at the stern of a ship moored nearby; the camera pans to the White Ensign flying from HMS Codrington's main mast. A Humber staff car carrying the King heads past the camera and the destroyer in the background.
Production Details: Universal (Production company)
Noble, R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: George VI, King (person)
Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast (6th Viscount Gort) (person)
British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service)
Royal Navy, CODRINGTON (HMS) (regiment/service)
Keywords: Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
Royal Navy 1939-1945 (theme)
