Buckingham Palace Allotment

Who knew George V was growing vegetables in his back yard?

Gardeners haul turnips out of the ground in this glimpse behind the scenes of a royal household. The Government created official propaganda newsreels like this one to bolster public morale in the later stages of World War One. Often, the films actually shied away from showing the grimness of conflict, instead distracting their viewers with varied or amusing items about life on the home front.

While ‘digging for victory’ might have been one of the iconic campaigns of World War Two, it was also typical in World War One for available land to be turned over to food production to boost supplies. In Britain, rationing gradually became compulsory through 1918, the year in which this film was produced.