Open Heritage Days: Free film screening 'The Home Front in Buckinghamshire' at MK Gallery

Living Archive images from their First World War archive have been included in a short film that gives a vivid depiction of life on the Home Front in Buckinghamshire during the First World War. 

It has been produced as part of the commemoration of the centenary of the First World War. 
Through an extraordinary range of original visual material from all round the county, the film shows how the War affected everyone’s lives. Bucks lost over 8000 men and many were badly wounded.

Back home, the images in the film show the disruption to family life, how the role of women changed and how Buckinghamshire children played their part, leaving school early, digging allotments, collecting scrap metal and raising funds.
 
The film provides a unique insight into the critical part played in the War effort by some of the larger houses such as Chequers, in the days before that house was given to the nation for the use of her Prime Ministers. 
In the north of the county, the film reveals the important contribution made by Wolverton Works in supporting the military, including adapting mail and circus trains into mobile hospitals.

It also shows how a Rothschild house was transformed into an infantry training camp which, in 1918, became RAF Halton. 

It covers the contribution of farms to the war effort too, and the first real mechanisation of agriculture.

The screening is free and begins at 7.30pm this evening (Sept 9).