Birmingham University Procession on Degree Day (1901)

Birmingham
1901
Silent
3m

Female graduates and gents sporting spectacular Edwardian whiskers take part in Birmingham's first Degree Day ceremony.

The University of Birmingham was the first of the new redbrick universities established in the 1900s. The city's Victoria Square, renamed 12 days before Queen Victoria's death, played host to its first Degree Day ceremony in July 1901. Alongside male and female graduates, dignitaries include University Chancellor Joseph Chamberlain. Medical graduates can be seen waving bones at the camera.

The film was shot by Arthur Duncan Thomas, a larger-than life showman given to passing himself off as the American inventor Thomas Edison (for his cheek Thomas was described by British filmmaker Cecil Hepworth as a "loveable rogue"). Thomas used four whole rolls of film, to show in sequence at Birmingham's Curzon Hall. The negatives were retained by Mitchell and Kenyon, who would have been paid to process and print the film.

The Old School Yard

Children – unsung stars of so many Mitchell & Kenyon films – take the spotlight.

The more-or-less formal school parades (plus the odd sports day) collected here present a more regimented Edwardian childhood than the one which so often bursts into M&K's other films. The films capture a transitional moment in British education, with classroom provision extended in 1902's Education Act.

With a variety of educational models on display - local authority and church-run (Anglican or Catholic) - some schools are more formal or relaxed than others. As we watch them parade, it’s hard not to be reminded that much of this new generation, so full of life and hope, was destined for the trenches of World War I.