Infantry at Pretoria (c.1900)

1900
Silent
2m

First-hand footage of troops on parade in Boer War era Pretoria.

Mitchell and Kenyon filmed numerous military parades, returning troops and fictional accounts of the conflict in South Africa. But this footage remains an anomaly. We know that M&K didn't travel to Pretoria (and these grainy pictures, shot from a distance, bear none of their stylistic hallmarks). Did they buy the footage, hoping to profit from audiences eager for news from the front?

The chance of seeing troops abroad was an irresistible lure for British audiences, hungry for patriotic entertainment. The commercially-minded Mitchell and Kenyon probably purchased this footage from the Warwick Trading Company, which in 1901 boasted a catalogue of films shot in South Africa, including one of infantry parading by the Dutch Church in Pretoria's Church Square, which might well be this one.

Back from the War

Britain's troops return from war in South Africa to a rapturous welcome - despite more ambivalent public attitudes to the Boer War itself.

A few adventurous film companies journeyed to South Africa to capture (mostly heavily sanitised) film documents of the Second Boer War (1899-1902). Mitchell and Kenyon, like most others, stayed at home, choosing instead to film reconstructed or dramatised war stories. But as they visited towns and cities across the North, M&K also captured the jubilation that greeted homecoming troops.

There's no sign here of public misgivings about what had been a brutal and hard-won war, nor any hint of disrespect for the military commanders who appear in several films. Instead, the overwhelming focus is the ranks of ordinary soldiers, and the collective joy and relief for their safe return.