Description
Object description
Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's wartime cabinet, witnessing a ceremony at the headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in northern France in which General Sir Edmund Ironside, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, are awarded the Legion of Honour by General Maurice Gamelin, the French Army Commander-in-Chief.
Full description
I. At an airfield in northern France on a damp and misty day, Winston Churchill, wearing a naval cap and a dark coat, is introduced by two British war correspondents to other British and French colleagues. He is seen in a cheerful mood, exchanging the occasional remark with them; the staff cars that brought Churchill and his party can be seen in the background. A Royal Air Force officer serving with the British Expeditionary Force Air Component escorts him across the grass airfield to RAF personnel drawn up in rank for inspection. Filmed from different angles, Churchill passes up and down the ranks of RAF men. Afterwards, he walks across the airfield with a walking stick in company with several RAF officers and is next seen emerging from the doorway of a Nissen hut after inspecting it. As he does so, he shakes hands with another RAF officer who appears on the scene with a gas mask satchel over his shoulder. This sequence ends with a medium close up of Churchill with the RAF officers.
Full description
II. In the grounds of the chateau in use as Lord Gort's billet at le Couroy outside the village of Avesnes-le-Comte near Arras, General Gamelin, in full dress uniform with all of his decorations, and General Ironside in ordinary dress uniform walk into the garden followed by General Lord Gort and General Alphonse-Joseph Georges, Commander-in-Chief of the North West Front, and two French Army officers past men of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards on parade in the background. It is a dull winter's day. Watched by Churchill, his son, Randolph Churchill, and several other British and French officers from the garden's terrace balustrade, Gamelin decorates Ironside and Gort with the Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur); the ceremony consists of him touching the shoulders of both men with his sword and, assisted by his two aides-de-camp, placing a crimson sash over their shoulders and pinning the large silver Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour to their chests. In the background, a colour party and soldiers from a French Zouave regiment are on parade. Throughout the ceremony, cameraman is standing some distance away; he devotes more time to Lord Gort's investiture than he does to General Ironside's. Afterwards, Generals Gamelin, Georges, Gort and Ironside (visible at one point at the extreme left of the frame) pose for camera; both Gamelin and Georges have already been decorated with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. The ground is wet and muddy. The four senior commanders stand at attention as the men from the Zouave Guard of Honour and (briefly) the Welsh Guardsmen march past while the band plays in the background, watched by the two Churchills and Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall, Gort's Chief-of-Staff. Randolph Churchill is in the uniform of the 4th Hussars, his father's old regiment. Ironside, Gamelin, Gort and Georges walk away from the garden with three French aides-de-camp. On the garden terrace after the investiture, General Gamelin and his aide-de-camp converse with Churchill whilst other senior British officers on Lord Gort's headquarters staff chat in the background. Churchill is also filmed talking to General Georges; between the two men stands a French officer who may be an interpreter. Gort is seen talking to another Frenchman, possibly a liaison officer. Close ups of the silver Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour worn by the very tall General Sir Edmund Ironside and General Lord Gort; both shots are slightly out-of-focus but as Gort steps back from the camera the focus becomes sharp. Churchill and a French officer stand next to each other on the terrace near the French window leading to the garden. Gort, with his glistening new award on his chest, looks happy as he talks to somebody off-screen. A close-up of General Pownall.
Full description
III. Scenes on the terrace at the back of the chateau at le Couroy before the investiture showing Churchill in conversation with Ironside and on his own, looking amiable and saying a few words to somebody out of shot. Nearby, a senior French officer, Randolph Churchill and a British diplomat wearing a dark coat and a bowler hat, stand at the French window. Churchill, Gamelin and Gort pose for the cameras; on Churchill's right at the extreme edge of the frame stands General Ironside. Holding on to his walking stick. Churchill joins Gamelin, Gort and Georges for another photograph, then just with Gort and Georges. Ironside and Gamelin step down the stairs leading from the terrace into the garden, followed by Georges. The three men salute the colours of the French Zouave Regiment on parade for the investiture.
Physical description
35mm