Solar Eclipse
- 1900
The Bicycle Infantry train for action
Although never deployed in combat formations in the Boer War, the Cycle Corps were ready for action. But to go by the quality of the drills seen here, it is perhaps no surprise that the Corps were mainly used for reconnaissance and communication. This film, which belonged to the collection of Charles Goodwin Norton - celebrated lanternist and one time projectionist for Queen Victoria - was likely made for the Velograph Company, one of the many cinema ventures that folded before the end of the century, shuttering in 1899.
It was a lucky filmmaker who managed to be on hand to capture real 'hard news', as in the disastrous launch of HMS Albion. The second Boer War, the biggest international story of the late-Victorian era, lured several cameramen to South Africa. Others responded to audience demand for moving pictures of such events by dramatising them for the camera.