Preston and District Roll of Honour, 10th Series

Preston
1915
Silent
2m

Moving record of relatives waving a fond farewell to departing loved ones during WWI.

Enthusiastic enlistees head off to war while proud loved ones wave them off in these poignant, even beautiful images (see the flicker of reflected flags and hands in the windows of the departing train). Local filmmaker Hugh Rain, who shot this film under his stage name Will Onda, set up his Preston Film and Exchange Company around 1912, providing short topical subjects for northern cinemas.

Farewell of relatives to their loved ones who are off to fight. Scenes are from Preston Railway station.

The First World War: Remembrance

These poignant films return us to a time when the war was still fresh.

The First World War came to an end at 11am on 11 November 1918 - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - a day that was immediately commemorated as Armistice Day (Remembrance Sunday was an innovation of the Second World War). The annual parades and wreath laying became a staple of the newsreels, and subsequently television.

But the act of remembrance began long before the guns stopped firing. During the war, cinemas across the country regularly screened 'Roll of Honour' films, paying tribute to members of the local community who had been killed, captured or wounded in the conflict. And of course, while the war itself faded into history, filmmakers would revisit those world-shattering years for generations after.