TOPICAL BUDGET 257-1 [Main Title]

Log in to create clips, download free screeners and save clips/films in Collections. Click here to find out more.

  • Title: TOPICAL BUDGET 257-1 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: NTB 257-1
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: I. Captured German submarine is displayed in London. II. Band of the Belgian Guides visits London III. Convalescent soldiers are entertained. IV. A procession of women war workers marches through the West End of London.
  • Description: I. 'GERMAN SUBMARINE COMES TO LONDON. The German submarine-minelayer U.C.5 captured by the British Navy, moored off Temple Pier'. MS off the port quarter of UC.5 secured alongside the pier - old London Bridge visible in the background. The U-boat still wears the German ensign. II. 'KING ALBERT'S BAND. The Band of the Belgian Guides accompanied by the Welsh Guards on their way to Chelsea Hospital.' HA.MS as crowd accompanies along a road the band of the Welsh Guards, followed by the Belgian contingent - only the Welsh are playing. The crowd wave to the camera and seem in a holiday mood. Two buses follow up the rear. III. 'STAFFORDSHIRE HOUSE ENTERTAINS WOUNDED SOLDIERS. A donkey race and a light-the-cigarette race provide plenty of amusement for the wounded Tommies from the Hospitals'. Women run down marked-out lanes to light men's cigarettes - once the cigarette is alight the two run off together. The process is repeated with different men and women over the same course in a relay. Some of the women's cigarette lighting technique is a little patchy. LS down the track as women run a race - there is little concession to athleticism as all the contestants wear long dresses and some are in bonnets. They cross the finishing tape and one contestant collides with a group of soldiers watching the race - the men do not seem displeased. IV. 'PAGEANT OF WOMEN WAR WORKERS. The Women's procession of War workers marching through the West End with a tableau, in honour of Lord Kitchener's memory.' Women parade past camera carrying banners: 'HELP OUR PRISONERS IN GERMANY', COME BACK HUGHES AND COME AT ONCE', HUGHES IS NEEDED HERE AND NOW', THE PEOPLE'S MESSAGE - COME BACK HUGHES', 'HONOUR THE MEN IN THE TRENCHES', etc. A woman rides past dressed in imitation chain mail with a lance in hand, followed by a second horsewoman in mock-medieval costume. Wagons carry various tableaux. Boadicea passes in her chariot, Queen Elizabeth I on horseback. More banners favouring Hughes, preceded by riders dressed as Australians. 'MR. LLOYD GEORGE WATCHES THE PROCESSION. The Secretary of State for War watches the women marching past the War Office.' LA to Lloyd George looking down from balcony. MSs of the procession - wagons, mock Australians, women dressed in white each carrying a staff topped with flowers, a banner calling on God to save the King. As the sequence ends, police are moving across the street to check the advance of the crowd - some of the ladies carrying flower-staves look back at the disturbance.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM (NTB 257-1)
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1916-07-26
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: War Office (Production sponsor) Topical Film Company (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Hughes, William Morris (person) Lloyd George, David (person) German Imperial Navy, UC-5 (regiment/service) Belgian Army, Guides 1 (regiment/service) British Army, Welsh Guards (regiment/service) Staffordshire House (regiment/service) Women's Social and Political Union (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: ships, German naval - submarine: UC-5 & [captured] (object name) ceremonies, Belgian - display: marchpast (object name) ceremonies, British - display: marchpast of Welsh Guards (object name) casualties, British wounded (object name) medical, British military - long term: convalescent soldier (object name) recreation, British military - sport: light-the-cigarette race (object name) society, British - friendship (object name) ceremonies, British - display: pageant of women war workers (object name) London, England, UK (geography) GB, England & London, SW <Chelsea> (geography) GB, England & <Staffordshire House convalescent home> (geography) (concept)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: English Subtitle language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 281 ft; Running time: 3 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Summary (item I): the UC-5 was publicly exhibited from 26 July, and received 10,000 visitors on the first day at a price of 6d per visitor until 1 o'clock and 3d thereafter. Visitors were not allowed inside, but received a postcard showing the submarines interior arrangements. The flying of the German ensign was probably improper as the possession of UC-5 was the result of a salvage operation. Summary (item II): the band of the Guides was in England to help commemorate the anniversary of the Declaration of Belgian Independence on 21 July, 1830. This event - not usually given much prominence in the English Calendar - was celebrated in 1916 by a Te Deum in Westminster Cathedral. The concert held in the gardens of the Hospital was on behalf of Belgian charities. Summary (item IV): the procession organised by the Women's Social and Political Union marched from the Embankment to Trafalgar Square, and was ostensibly in support of women war workers. 'The Times' (24 July) noted that "There was considerable surprise, however, that by far the largest number of the bannerets were devoted to appeals to Mr. Hughes to return, giving quite secondary place to the advertised motives of the procession." Mr Hughes, Labour Prime Minister of Australia, who had visited Britain in the spring of 1916, had been a tremendous popular success. If the lady in the chain-mail can be supposed to be Joan of Arc then that part was played by a Miss Farmer-Bringhurst.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    NTB 257-1

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:
Register