Coldstream Guards Embarking on Troopship Gascon

This close view of departing troops gets up close and personal with soldiers off to the Boer War.

This piece of footage, distributed by the Fuerst Brothers, shows the Coldstream Guards embarking on the troopship Gascon for South Africa on 21 October 1899. Unusual in its sense of hustle and bustle, the scene is a more intimate example of an ‘embarkation film’. Amid the crowd the camera captures a palpable atmosphere.