It’s not every day you find an important piece of history, but I recently came across a catalogue listing for a film from the First World War. Amazingly, the film has been digitised. It is of one or more battalions of the Durham Light Infantry in the rear areas of the Western Front, autumn 1917.

This is possibly the first ever recorded game of Bingo, also known as ‘house’ or ‘housey-housey’ at the time. It was the only ‘gambling’ game officially permitted in the armed forces.

Source Imperial War Museum, Film Number: IWM 399

You can see the whole film here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060022864

The film has no sound