Leeds Lifeboat Procession (1902)

There's a grand turn-out in the streets of Leeds to support the Lifeboat fundraiser.

This Leeds' fundraising event, held on 5 July 1902, was given red carpet treatment by Mitchell and Kenyon (working for three different commissioners), who brought several cameras and shot at least 16 rolls of film. There were said to be some 600 collectors in the streets on the day - including, presumably, the two women who hold aloft lifeboat-shaped collecting tins at the close of this film.

This film was commissioned by RS Smethurst, a Lancashire showman who travelled with his film shows in the early 1900s, and who seems to have been particularly active in Leeds around this time.