Lieutenant Pimple and the Stolen Submarine
- Twickenham
- 1914
New Type of Cruiser
HMS Chatham is launched by the Marchioness Camden in this earliest surviving item from the Topical Budget newsreel.
This celebration of British naval might from Kent's Chatham dockyard welcomes the new 'light cruiser' HMS Chatham - another volley in the pre-WWI arms race. The cruiser is launched by society beauty Joan Pratt, the Marchioness Camden. Ship launches were important national and local public events, with a natural immediacy and drama well suited to short film stories. This film, the earliest surviving item from the successful Topical Budget newsreel (1911-31), follows a winning format, with views of the crowds, the dignitaries on the launching platform and of the ship moving down the slips into the river.
HMS Chatham was one of the new 'Town' class light cruisers built by the Royal Navy in response to a new class of ships developed in Germany, all of them named after German towns. This class of cruiser was built for speed and manoeuvrability to support the main battle fleet. The ship would see action during WWI, in the legendary pursuit of the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau towards the Dardanelles, and in the Gallipoli landings.
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The First World War: The Road to War
Hindsight is 20:20: how looking back at the films of the early 1910s reveals glimpses of what few at the time saw coming - a world-changing war.
The outbreak of war in July 1914 came as a shock to most. But from our privileged position today, we can find among the films produced in the early 1910s scattered hints of the looming conflict that would split Europe in two.
One ominous sign was the proliferation of stories of international espionage and intrigue (played as drama or comedy), while newsreels offer evidence of the prominence of the armed forces in British society. Even so, the overwhelming majority of films of the period point to a nation blissfully unaware of the horrors to come.
21 videos in this collection
1
Lieutenant Pimple and the Stolen Submarine
2
The German Spy Peril
3
Balloon Accident at St Cloud Topical Budget 152-1
4
Servants Superceded
5
Fife and Forfar Yeomanry Topical Budget 164-1
6
8,000 Men on Strike at Woolwich Arsenal Topical Budget 150-1
7
Carpentier and Gunboat Smith Topical Budget 151-2
8
Army Cross Country Topical Budget 136-2
9
The Great East End Anarchist Battle
10
New Type of Cruiser Topical Budget 11-2
11
Aerial Submarine A Startling Forecast. Piracy in Sea and Air
12
Millionaires at Play Topical Budget 136-2
13
Lord Lovat's Scouts Topical Budget 164-1
14
The Airship Destroyer
15
The Paris Sensation: Scenes at the Funeral of M. Calmette, The Murdered Editor of the 'Figaro' Gaumont Graphic No. 313
16
From the Fighting Top of a Battleship in Action
17
The English Switzerland
18
Bobs and the Baby Marksmen
19
The Opening of New Drill Hall at Haltwhistle
20
From Antwerp to Ostend
21