Christmas Church Parade

Recruits of Lord Kitchener's 'New Army' parade on Christmas morning.

Filmed just a few months into WWI, this newsreel shows recruits of Kitchener's New Army rather haphazardly 'falling in' to formation for a parade. These recruits aren't professional soldiers but ordinary working men with little or no military training. Predicting a drawn-out war, Kitchener famously launched a patriotic recruitment campaign targeting enthusiastic volunteers like those seen here.