On 16th December, 1914, the Imperial German Navy carried out an attack on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby. The attack resulted in 592 casualties many of them civilians of which 137 were fatal.  The film includes footage of Scarborough following the aftermath of the bombing as well as the funeral of Coast Guard Frederick Randel in Whitby, 1914. The film opens with solders on horseback riding across the sand at Scarborough beach.  The lighthouse and part of the...

On 16th December, 1914, the Imperial German Navy carried out an attack on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby. The attack resulted in 592 casualties many of them civilians of which 137 were fatal.  The film includes footage of Scarborough following the aftermath of the bombing as well as the funeral of Coast Guard Frederick Randel in Whitby, 1914. The film opens with solders on horseback riding across the sand at Scarborough beach.  The lighthouse and part of the coastline can be seen in the background.  This is followed by shots of large battle ships with smaller boats on either side of the ships.   The next scenes show the destruction in Scarborough following the bombing.  A man and two boys walk past one of the damaged buildings, and a house has lost half of its first floor.  A man looks out the window from the remaining half of the house as a few onlookers observe from the street.  The Grand Hotel has also been hit, and damage to the windows can be seen.  Elsewhere, and using a stretcher, men carry out a victim from a house.  There is more footage of the Grand Hotel followed by two men inspecting a damaged church roof.  Scarborough’s lighthouse has also been hit, and a gaping hole can be seen in the middle of the lighthouse.  Footage is taken from the ground level as well as up close.  Townspeople, including women and children, sort through the rubble where houses have been hit.  An undamaged row of houses can be seen in the background.  A man is in a field where he stands in a hole created by an explosion.  He sifts through the dirt, and two other men join him and do the same.  Following this is more footage of damaged houses, this time showing a back alley way and the back gate of number 20, the first floor of this house which had been hit.   The final section of the film was taken at the funeral of Coast Guard Frederic Randell in Whitby.  The funeral procession makes its way through the graveyard at Whitby Abbey.  A horse-drawn carriage carries Randell’s coffin, and at the top of the hill, the pallbearers remove the coffin from the carriage.  The priest and family wait by the entranceway.  They then follow the coffin as the pallbearers carry it to the gravesite.  A woman puts her arm around a young girl’s shoulder as they do so, and they are followed by men in military uniform.  The film closes with the attendants, family, and priest gathered around the gravesite into which the coffin has been lowered.  Military personnel raise and fire their rifles in salute.