British Universities Film & Video Council

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Profile of Remembrance - The British Legion

Series

Series Name
Colour Pictorial

Issue

Issue No.
722
Date Released
24 Oct 1968
Date recorded
10 Oct 1968
Length of issue (in feet)
699
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1Profile of Remembrance - The British Legion

Story

Story No. within this Issue
1 / 1
Summary
Pathe synopsis: Pathe Pic looks at Britain’s most nostalgic charity and finds that it has a surprisingly modern outlook. The British Legion is famous for its attentions to the needs of the disabled survivors of two world wars. As Sir Oliver Leese, the President, explains, it’s also concerned with men who fought in more recent trouble spots: Malaysia, Cyprus, Korea, Aden. It’s also paying for young boys and girls to go Outward Bound on Dartmoor. The Legion’s other charitable enterprises include the taxi-driver’s training school at Brixton, London, the Cambrian pure Welsh tweed factory at Llanwrtyd Wells, Breconshire, and the famous British Legion village at Maidstone where Legion pensioners are quite literally concerned with manufacturing signs of our times - the new continental road signs for Britain’s roads. More traditionally the women workers - widows and other dependents of ex-servicemen - make Christmas crackers, giving a deft demonstration of how the insides of a cracker actually gets inside a cracker. But the heart of the Legion’s business is fund raising. At the Factory of Remembrance in Richmond, three hundred men work all the year round making the thirty million poppies that are sold during one week in November. The money raised - and the Legion needs £1_ million this year - is spent mainly in pensions, grants, and welfare. We visit two famous Legion homes, Crossfield House in the Welsh border country, an idyllic hill and woodland country home where those who cannot work can spend time reflecting amongst old comrades and new friends, where stars like Jack Warner drop in to pay compassionate courtesy to those who would rather be remembered for what they are and need rather than for what they did.
Keywords
War veterans; Fundraising; Performing arts; Newsreels
Written sources
Pathe Colour Pictorial Lobby Cards   Used for synopsis
Credits:
Commentator
Wilfrid Thomas
Length of story (in feet)
639
Story extras:
Film clip

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This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name
British Pathe Ltd
Email
info@britishpathe.com
Web
https://www.britishpathe.com/
Phone
0207 665 8340
Address
3.29 Canterbury Court
1-3 Brixton Road
London
SW9 6DE
Notes
Pathe now also handles the Reuters Historical Collection, which includes the British Paramount, Empire British, Gaumont Graphic and Gaumont British newsreels.
Series held
View all series held by British Pathe Ltd

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