Hutted Histories: Creating Cinematic War Memorials - Professor Mark Connelly

Creating cinematic war memorials: the First World War battle reconstructions of British Instructional

Films, 1921-1931 with Professor Mark Connelly

British Instructional Films made a series of battle reconstructions with the aid of the War Office and

Admiralty that proved smash hits across the Empire. Now almost entirely unknown, these films

attempted to show the people of the Empire exactly what their soldiers and sailors had done on

their behalf. Using hundreds of troops and ships lent by the army and navy, BIF was able to create

epics which thrilled people whilst also making them consider the cost of the war. Such was the

importance of these films that King George V made the first ever visit by a British monarch to a

public cinema in order to see the 1924 film Zeebrugge. He was so impressed that when the Battles of

the Coronel and Falkland Islands was released in 1927 he requested a private showing at Balmoral.

Of course, these films were never ‘silent’ – sound effects and music were added in order to enhance

as well as shape the viewing experience. In addition, by frequently using soldiers’ songs in the

musical accompaniment the audiences were often induced to singing along thus turning a screening

into a community experience resurrecting memories and emotions. By looking at these films, it is

possible to tell much about how people across the British Empire understood the war in its

immediate aftermath.

Mark Connelly is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Kent. His main research and

teaching interests are focused on the First World War and the way it was remembered in the British

Empire. He works closely with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and runs a joint seminar

series with the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ieper. His publications include The Great War: memory

and ritual; The British Army and the First World War (with Ian Beckett and Timothy Bowman) and

Postcards from the Western Front: pilgrims, veterans and tourists after the Great War.