Title:MAYOR OF FRENCH VILLAGE PRESENTS COLOURS TO ROYAL ULSTER RIFLES [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BDY 28
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes taken with a sound camera showing a ceremony organised by the mayor of a suburb of Lille to thank British troops for organising a Christmas party for the village children.
Description: Scenes filmed from the roof of a camera car overlooking the main square of Lezennes, a suburb of Lille, showing men from the 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles on parade. Brief extracts from a speech made by the local mayor, M Doumoulin, and the reply by Lieutenant-Colonel H G P Whitfield, the Royal Ulster Rifles' tall commanding officer, who speaks in school-boy French. The mayor's teenage daughter (?) presents the Lieutenant-Colonel with a standard she (?) has made featuring the emblem of the Royal Ulster Rifles. The mayor's (?) teenage son in a pale suit presents Whitfield with a floral bouquet. After the presentation, the Lieutenant-Colonel walks a short distance across the square to meet two French officers from the French Navy and Army. Wearing a War Correspondent's uniform and an officer's cap, British Paramount cameraman Fred Bayliss can be seen filming the ceremony. Lieutenant-Colonel Whitfield steps forward to place his floral bouquet at the foot of Lezennes' First World War memorial, watched by the French officers, Mayor Doumoulin and Madame Demain, a French nurse who is wearing medals which she earned for gallantry during the First World War. The camera pans from the war memorial to the Ulster Riflemen on parade in the square as an unseen band strikes up with a trumpet call and shots of command. The coverage ends with a shot looking down on several boys sitting in a row watching the ceremony.
Production Details: British Movietone News (Production company)
Fisher, N (Production individual)
Gray, M (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Whitfield, H G P (person)
British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Ulster Rifles, 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
Keywords: Lille, Nord, France (geography)
Lezennes, Lille, Nord, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: French
Title language: English
Subtitle language: None
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 168 ft; Running time: 1 min 52 secs
