Commemorating the Great War on Film: Veterans, Pilgrimages and Amateur Filmmaking

This article explores the work of four amateur filmmakers from the Canterbury area, between the late 1920s and early 1970s focusing on the films relating to the battlefield visits of First World War veterans and their families. It argues that film provides a fascinating insight into veteran behaviour and culture. Of particular interest is the manner in which the films reveal the continuities and developments in the behaviour of ex-servicemen. The films of the late 1920s and 1930s reveal a highly masculine culture which remained closely aligned with military ceremonial and codes of conduct, whereas the later, post-1945, films show the veterans with wives and family members engaging in a wider range of activities. The article also sets the films within the culture of amateur filmmaking of the time discussing equipment, techniques and exhibition, thus engaging with an element of film history which remains under-explored compared with the degree of research commercial cinema has attracted. The article is supplemented by a short film providing excerpts from all films discussed. Academic works focusing on the memory of the Great War have proliferated over the last thirty years with memorials and public commemorative practices and rituals receiving much attention. Despite this outpouring, the role of veterans in commemorative culture has remained surprisingly low. When veterans are the focus, the main issues explored are often the campaigns for pensions and benefits,