Doncaster Times Issue 1 - June 2016

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The film covers the Battle from the build-up, through to the beginning on the 1 July 1916, and closes with the aftermath of this early action. Although filmed as a documentary, the film is generally accepted to be a form of propaganda, including staged scenes. However, it is estimated that the majority of footage is real, with slightly over a minute consisting of staged scenes. The film was released to the public in August 1916. As soon as it was released, debates began to rage about the content of the film. Featuring scenes of wounded or dead British soldiers, including scenes of communal graves, many argue that it was disrespectful and macabre to show the soldiers deaths on film. The shock of seeing real life battle scenes features heavily in the reviews of the film in the local Doncaster press: “To see a man shot dead and fall stiff right in front of you is a weird experience, it is true, but it occurred to us that half the audience did not at that moment realise that the man was actually dead. They are so used to the pictures showing feats of all kinds that the spectacle of a man falling is quite common-place. It was when the film went on and the fallen soldier never rose that the truth flashed into the mind. ‘He’s dead!’ burst from several lips.” However, the film was wildly popular and was what would now be called a ‘box office success’. There were around 20 million admissions to the film, out of a total UK population of 43 million. Through the film, the audience forged a personal connection with the actions at the Front. Audience members saw their loved ones, as men were encouraged to show their faces to the camera. In describing a screening of the film at the Picture House on Doncaster High Street, the Doncaster Gazette reported that; “The audience sat in absorbed silence broken by occasional but emphatic bursts of applause as the great drama of the July “push” was unfolded in a wonderful series of pictures - surely the most wonderful pictures of human effort and heroism ever presented by the camera.” Doncaster Gazette, 20 October 1916 Lynsey Slater Doncaster 1914-18 Project Researcher Kate McAleese Research Volunteer Doncaster Chronicle, 20 October 1916 As part of the Imperial War Museum’s Centenary commemorations, Doncaster 1914-18 is working with Mexborough’s Cozy Cinema, and supported by Phantom Cinema, to put on four screenings of the film across the borough between July and November 2016. Each screening will feature music and poetry inspired by the First World War by the Read to Write Group Mexborough, based on original research from the Mexborough and District Heritage Society. Dates: Thursday 14 July Concertina Club, Mexborough Monday 19 September Coulman Pavilion, Thorne Thursday 13 October Doncaster Little Theatre Wednesday 2 November Woodfield Club, Balby Film starts at 7.30pm. The Imperial War Museum (IWM) took ownership of the Battle of the Somme film in 1920. The wild popularity of the film had caused the original negative to became so damaged it was completely irretrievable. Luckily, a copy was made by IWM in 1931. This version has been restored and preserved by IWM to be shown this year to mark the centenary of the Battle. For more details, see: www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk • 20 •
Doncaster Musical Experiences during the Great War Compared with the second war of 1939-45, the First World War presents a striking contrast in its musical provision in Doncaster. For much of the years 1939-41, little of significance took place on the musical side. Even the Doncaster Musical Society wound down and eventually disbanded altogether. However, before it did, the present Doncaster Choral Society had appeared, as it traces its origins to 1943 and many noteworthy solo musicians came in 1941-45 to give recitals. As far as professional orchestral concerts went, in those years and for some years after 1945, Doncaster has never had it so good. Things worked out differently in 1914-18. At first there seemed to be a need, almost an obsession, to keep to “business as usual”. True, George and Bromley Booth who had organised a series of high class celebrity concerts since 1900 abandoned their projected 1914-15 season and these never restarted. Yet Doncaster Musical Society, which had for quarter of a century been the town’s leading musical institution, carried on for a season and a bit, and at first it even enrolled new members. On 26 November 1914, a three hour concert, whose proceeds were partly given to the local War Fund and for which soldiers were charged half price, had as its main course Sullivan’s cantata, The Golden Legend. Its supporting programme included the Allied National Anthems (not many at that stage of the war, only Britain, France, Belgium, Russia, Serbia and maybe Japan by my count) Tchaikovsky’s Solemar Overture 1812, Saint- Saens Fantaisie for harp, played by Hubert Van Kerkhove from the Kursaal, Ostend and two songs by the D.M.S’s Conductor, Wilfred Sanderson, one of the greatest of all British ballad composers, including the obviously recent England’s Call; “O men and boys of England, O sons of all her sons, What call was ever clear In darkest days like these?” After a performance for local war funds of Handel’s Messiah on New Year’s Eve by the D.M.S, it progressed in March 1915 to Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Gervase Elwes, one of the greatest of all exponents of the title role. It was preceded by the Overture to The Mastersingers of Nurenberg, showing, happily, that Doncaster refused to entertain the anti-German feeling then current in English attitudes in artistic matters, which I have always found rather pathetic. Two ballad concerts later took place with Sanderson songs again prominent. But The Society, strapped for cash, suspended activities “for the duration” in November 1915. Belgian musicians, evacuated from their homeland, continued to contribute to the town’s music. M. Firmin Swinnen, Organist of Antwerp Cathedral, gave two recitals at the Parish Church in 1915; in the same year, also at the church, there was a concert by the Belgian National Band, conducted by M Jules Ardennois also of Antwerp; the twenty six players were drawn from the Antwerp and Brussels Opera Houses and the King of the Belgians’ orchestra. The D.M.S and celebrity concerts may have gone by the beginning of 1916, but plenty of charity concerts were arranged, for the Red Cross, the Doncaster Infirmary and the Arnold Military Hospital on Thorne Road, some given by the Bentley Orpheus Choirs. Professional opera companies visited as in time of peace. Wilfred Sanderson left Doncaster on war service in 1917 and his place as Organist of the Parish Church was taken by A.C.G. Jellicoe, a cousin of the admiral. Another wartime visitor was Private Rutland Boughton who played the piano in several concerts at Priory Methodist Church. The then Organist of Christ Church, Urquhart Cawley, played his own Romance, and also performed Elgar’s Carillon, composed for Belgian war charities, with his wife speaking Cammaerts’ recitation. Cawley gave a recital illustrating a talk by Lena Ashwell telling about her concerts entertaining soldiers at the front. Victory was celebrated musically. Sanderson returned to direct a Thanksgiving Service in 1919 at the Parish Church to conduct the renowned DMS in Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha and to accompany a ballad concert in which six of his own songs were aired. A final thought. Pre-war and for a few years after, Doncaster Grammar School gave a July concert including scenes from Shakespeare and ballads and songs from Sanderson’s choral class in the • 21 •
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Page 3 and 4: Doncaster Times At home, At war •
Page 5 and 6: Did He ‘Go’ or Was He ‘Sent
Page 7 and 8: difference between remaining at hom
Page 9 and 10: grounds, there were also men seekin
Page 11 and 12: S p otlight Can you identify the lo
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Page 19 and 20: James Crampton From Private to Majo
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Page 25 and 26: school. On 29 July 1914, six days b
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Doncaster Times Issue 1 - June 2016

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