On Tuesday, 22 November we will be showing The Battle of the Somme, a film blending documentary and propaganda that was shot by official war cinematographers Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell in the trenches from 25 June–9 July 1916 and first shown to British audiences that August. By October 1916 over 20 million tickets had been sold across the UK. The re-mastered film and modern soundtrack (Laura Rossi, 2006) are provided by the Imperial War Museum. Run time is 74 minutes.

The film will be shown in the Crichton Memorial Church at the University of Glasgow Dumfries Campus at 19.00. Tea and coffee will follow.

About the battle

The Battle of the Somme is particularly important in British memory: 120,000 went over the top on the morning of 1th July, of these 57,000 became casualties (20,000 of those died, most within the first 30 minutes). The battle was meant to be the big Allied push that broke the stalemate of trench warfare, bolstered by the influx of citizen soldiers recruited and trained in Kitchener’s New Armies. By the end of the campaign in November 1916, however, a total of over 1,000,000 men from both sides were captured, wounded, or killed and the war raged on for two more years.

For a full list of the fallen from the University of Glasgow community click here.

First World War commemoration at the University of Glasgow

The Battle of the Somme commemoration is part of the University’s ongoing First World War Centenary programme of events. To keep up to date on centenary events and for WWI study resources, see www.gla.ac.uk/ww1, follow @GlasgowUniWW1 on Twitter, and read Glasgow University’s Great War project blog. Find out more about the members of the University of Glasgow community who fought in the First World War by exploring the online Roll of Honour.