Skip to main content
BFI logo

Home

Film

Television

People

History

Education

Tours

Help

  search

Search

Screenonline banner
Topical Budget 183-2: Soldiers as Coal Porters (1915)
 

Synopsis

Warning: screenonline full synopses contain 'spoilers' which give away key plot points. Don't read on if you don't want to know the ending!

"SOLDIERS AS COAL PORTERS". Members of the Army Service Corps distributing coal to billeted soldiers" Medium shot of two men holding open a coal sack as another man behind them shovels coal into it from a heap of coal in a yard. Behind them are more men hacking coal into smaller pieces. Group of men outside a wooden hut in a coal yard. One man puts a bag of coal on his back and moves away. A sack of coal being winched up so a man can turn and take it more easily onto his back. The man with the sack walks along a plank which rests on the open side of a horse-drawn lorry [horse not seen]. Men standing on the lorry to receive it. Winching operation repeated. Film ends abruptly. Note: The Army Service Corps provided transport and supply services. Some of the men in the film wear peaked military hats; others flat caps.