Title:ARRIVAL OF CANADIAN TROOPS IN ENGLAND (sic) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BEY 16
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing the first Canadian soldiers to arrive in the United Kingdom in the Second World War disembarking at a Scottish port.
Description: People on the quayside at Gourock, Scotland, gaze at three ex-passenger liners now serving as troopships arriving at the Tail of the Bank in the Firth of Clyde. They are the ex-Furness-Bermuda Line ship, RMS Monarch of Bermuda and two Canadian Pacific liners, SS Duchess of Bedford and RMS Empress of Britain - three of the five large troopships that made the trans-Atlantic crossing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, with Convoy TC.1. Three Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo-bombers fly overhead. A senior Canadian Army officer, possibly Major-General A G L McNaughton, commander of the 1st Canadian Division, and Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for the Dominions in Neville Chamberlain's wartime government, are on hand to greet the new arrivals. Canadian soldiers crowded on the deck of TS Queen Mary II, a Clyde paddle steamer, wave their rifles in the air for the camera. A man on the quay throws a parcel (of cigarettes ?) at the men on the ferry boat as she docks. A crowd of local people on the waterfront waves at the camera. A Captain in the Canadian Army is the first man to disembark from the ferry. A local (?) journalist is on hand to fire questions at the men as they disembark. Some of the Canadian soldiers seen here are wearing the 1908-pattern ammunition pouches. The new arrivals pose for the camera and mill about the quay before falling in.
Production Details: Gaumont British News (Production company)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Eden, (Robert) Anthony (person)
McNaughton, Andrew George Latta (person)
Canadian Army (regiment/service)
Merchant Navy, EMPRESS OF BRITAIN (RMS), passenger liner (regiment/service)
Merchant Navy, MONARCH OF BERMUDA (RMS), passenger liner (regiment/service)
Merchant Navy, QUEEN MARY II (TS), paddle steamer (regiment/service)
Keywords: Gourock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK (geography)
Second World War 1939-1945 (event)
Canadian Army 1939-1945 (theme)
Empire & Commonwealth (theme)
Merchant Navy 1939-1945 (theme)
