Remembrance Day 1925

London
1925-11-12
Silent
1m

Newsreel cameras capture the crowds and royalty gathered to mark the seventh "Great Silence" on Remembrance Day 1925.

Join the massed crowds in London for the seventh 'Great Silence' in remembrance of those who died in war. King George V lays a wreath at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, before observers wait patiently to lay their own floral tributes. This Topical Budget newsreel item is longer and more detailed than usual, and ends with poignant footage of troops at the front.

The war memorial on Whitehall was first unveiled in 1920, five years before this film. It was built at the request of Prime Minister David Lloyd George and designed by architect Edwin Lutyens.

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.