09/11/2025
The camera which filmed the Somme... This camera at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum may look like a normal Moy- Bastie camera, but it belonged to Lieutenant Jonathan Benjamin Mcdowell, a cameraman during World War One. It was used by him to film 'The Battle of the Somme', the first feature-length war film that featured battlefield footage. The film was released in 1916. After it's release it was shown in 18 other countries. The film holder is signed by Mcdowell and the photograph shows him during the war with the camera. When the museum acquired the camera, the front panel was covered with black paint, which, on further inspection whilst removing it from around the lens, appeared to be camouflage paint.
John Mcdowell ended up at the Western Front as a civilian. He had volunteered after one of the two Official War Office cinematographers was taken ill. He worked alongside the other official cameraman Geoffrey H Malins and crossed the trenches following the soldiers. Many of the bloodiest scenes were cut by the War Office as they wanted propaganda to boost morale, not the horrifying reality of war. It still contains some scenes that have become the most famous images of the reality of war. The scene with the men going over the top on to no mans land was a reconstruction, as they were laden down with cumbersome equipment and maybe the footage taken hadn't been clear enough for them to include in the film, so it was staged later on. Mcdowell was later awarded the Military Cross and OBE for his work, and the film captured provides the basis for documentaries on the war even today.
In 2006, it was entered into UNESCO's 'Memory of the world Register' as a historical document of world significance.
