London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
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In the Interests of Mercy
Firepower and fancy dress as a captured German field gun is the focus of a parade through Croydon to mark Red Cross Week.
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Overview
Held to raise funds and awareness for the Red Cross, this parade through the centre of Croydon also allowed spectators to catch a glimpse of a German field gun that had been captured by British soldiers in Loos. The horse-pulled gun leads the march, and is followed by various carts, including one containing nurses tending wounded soldiers (possibly in costume) and women dressed in national costume. Crowds line the streets to watch.
The gun is later shown in close-up with a board proclaiming that it was a 35mm German field gun captured by the 20th (County of London Battalion), the London Regiment (Blackheath & Woolwich) 47th (2nd London) Division Territorial Force on September 25th, 1915. We also get a better look at three of the women in costume, now wearing badges numbered 1, 2 and 3, presumably the results of a fancy dress competition. The winner, resplendent in tartan, smiles shyly.
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