THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW : RAF well represented [Main Title]

RAF film of the procession of the Lord Mayor of London's Show through Ludgate Circus, 9th November 1918.

The camera is fixed at a high position looking down onto Ludgate Circus as the various elements of the procession file through. Leading are Royal Marines and sailors, some of whom took part in the Zeebrugge Raid. Both marines and sailors wear full-dress blues. A large crowd of civilians lines the route. The sailors are followed by the Boy Scouts, a Belgian Army contingent, the Army Service Corps, the WRNS, the WAACs, and the Forage Corps from the Women's Land Army. Three tanks take part in the procession, a Mark V Male, a Mark V Star Female with fitted unditching beam, and a Whippet. Airship R23 flies overhead, with the dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral visible in the background. The marchpast continues with display floats by the Land Army, the Ministry of Munitions, and the Royal Field and Garrison Artillery which tow their various guns. The 13-pounders of the Royal Horse Artillery lead the Royal Field Artillery 18-pounders and 4.5-inch howitzer, followed by a 2.75-inch mountain gun and a 4.7-inch field gun. As R23 makes another pass the Royal Garrison Artillery tow past a 60-pounder gun, a 6-inch 26cwt howitzer, an 8-inch Mk VI howitzer, and a dismantled 9.2-inch howitzer, followed by a 13-pounder anti-aircraft gun on a lorry mount and a float representing an observation post. A kite balloon overflies the crowd. One lorry displays all the various types of British gun ammunition, and another the various mortars and machine guns. Also in the procession are captured German 77mm field guns. Airship R26 overflies the procession. A lorry pulls a captured German 155mm howitzer past the crowd, followed by a 210mm howitzer, and types of German mortars and machine guns. One float is a pigeon loft, another is from the Ministry of Pensions showing disabled men at work. The massed bands of the Guards, in khaki, are followed by the RAF band and contingent, including the Women's Royal Air Force. The RAF display includes lorries carrying aircraft without their wings. Prominent are a Felixstowe F2A flying boat and two captured German aircraft, an Albatros CIII and an Albatros CI (the latter with a swastika marking on its side). Other floats show various types of bombs, a kite balloon in miniature, and engines being made. At its end the film jumps to the Law Courts, where civic, naval and military dignitaries arrive and enter, silhouetted in the doorway as they do so. The Lord Mayor, also silhouetted, arrives last.

35mm