The Story of a Great Day 3rd June 1944

Summary

Amateur film of the wedding of Harry and Eithne Willis at the Church of St John the Baptist, Clarendon Park Road, Leicester on 3rd June 1944 and the couple's subsequent honeymoon in Oxford.

Year:

1944

Duration:

0:15:00

Film type:

B&W/Colour / Silent

Genre:

Home Movie

Master format:

16mm

Description

Descriptive intertitles are used throughout. We see an opening shot of the film-maker Louis Browning wearing Home Guard uniform lighting a cigar. Further titles inform us that we are now at the Church of St John the Baptist, Knighton watching friends and relatives arrive for the ceremony and we see various parties of well-dressed wedding guests coming through the church gate. This is followed by the arrival of the wedding party, first the groom and the best man (on foot), followed by the bridesmaids and finally we see the bride and her father walking into the church. We then see stills of the ceremony itself, followed by moving images of the bride and groom leaving the church and being joined by the bridesmaids, the best man and the bride’s father for photographs. A further intertitle informs us that the following shots were filmed after the reception at Leicester Squash Club. We see a female guest throwing confetti over the groom'. The bride and groom then leave by car and we see the guests waving at them as they go. The remainder of the film shows footage of the couple’s honeymoon in Oxford. We see shots of the bride walking around the streets and parks of Oxford and various landmarks, including the Randolph Hotel on Beaumont Street, the quad and Big Tom Tower at Christ Church college, Christ Church cathedral and the Martyrs' Memorial. The film ends with the couple returning home to be greeted by an older lady and a lady in a white apron (possibly the maid) and we see the groom carrying the bride over the threshold.


Credits

Filmed by Louis Browning


Notes

This film features Henry and Eithne Willis from Leicester. MACE has a number of other home movies made by the couple in its collections.