Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item
Newsreel item on the entry of General Allenby into Jerusalem and the reading of his proclamation, Palestine, 11 December 1917.
Views of the honour guard at the Jaffa Gate, composed of English, Welsh, Scottish, Indian, Australian and New Zealand troops, with twenty soldiers each from Italy and France continuing the line inside the gate.
There is a glimpse of the New Zealand Troop Commander, Second Lieutenant C J Harris, CMR. His Troop of 33 mounted riflemen was made up of a sergeant and 10 men from AMR, nine men from CMR, nine men from WMR, three men from the NZ Machine Gun Squadron and one from the Signal Troop. (Powles, The New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine, p.170.)
Allenby meets the military governor of Jerusalem, Brigadier-General W M Borton, at the gate and walks in procession through the streets. The group is headed by two ADCs, Captain W L Naper and Lieutenant R H Andrew, then General Allenby flanked by the heads of the French and Italian contingents, Lieutenant-Colonel P de Piepape and Lieutenant-Colonel F D'Agostino, each with one staff officer.
Then come Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Dalmeny and Lieutenant-Colonel A P Wavell (the future Field Marshal Lord Wavell). The remaining group includes the French High Commissioner, M Picot, Louis Matignon (French orientalist), Major T E Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia'), Major-General L J Bols, Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Chetwode and Brigadier-General G P Dawnay, Allenby's Chief of Staff.
After the group has conversed amongst itself and Allenby has greeted civil dignitaries, his proclamation is read out with Allenby himself, de Piepape and d'Agostino on the platform.
Allenby and his staff, who made a point of walking into the city, then leave on horseback via the Jaffa Gate. Allenby had been less than fifteen minutes in the city. II.
Allenby receives the GCMG from Connaught, Major-General L J Bols receives the KCMG and Lieutenant-General Bulfin the KCMG also.
A final portrait shot of Allenby closes the film.
Adapted from catalogue entry from Imperial War Museum: http://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/index/47324, with further notes by Chris Pugsley