Bury St Edmunds Camp

A Suffolk Territorial Army Training Camp

Scenes of a Territorial Army training camp at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The silent film begins in black and white, with a Kodachrome colour sequence towards the end. Men in uniform take part in training exercises, lying on the ground, aiming rifles and running into position. Scenes of a group of members of a military band and other soldiers preparing for an event with tents in the background. Close up of men visiting tents. A band marches past a small group of onlookers followed by the officers and men marching in formation. The officers salute to someone off camera as they pass. In a different view, the parade passes a house where a woman and child watch from the front garden. Two small tanks follow at the end of the parade, one with the numberplate HMC 141. Rows of kit lie in front of the tents. The soldiers are shown relaxing and smoking. The camera passes along various groups of soldiers. This continues in colour. An officer with a camera stoops to take a photograph towards the cine camera. Men attend to the kit and engage in a play fight on the ground. Two men enjoy glasses of beer.

Additional Description

Home front activity, this time at a Bury St Edmunds Territorial Army training camp; footage captured in 1937. When war was declared only two years after this film was shot the overall size of the Territorial Army had doubled; Bury St. Edmunds and West Suffolk established a record for Territorial recruitment in England by raising 2,060 men in two months by the end of 1939. Believed to be footage captured during a Territorial Army Camp in Bury St Edmunds in 1937, here we see the volunteer soldiers in training, then also enjoying a well-earned pint and down-time back at the campsite. The text above accompanied the film in BFI Player as part of the Unlocking Film Heritage Project. The stock marks on the camera original film are for 1937, 1938 and 1939 (for the Kodachrome)

Keywords: Home fronts; Territorial armies; Military training; Soldiers; Second World War