With Our King and Queen Through India

[1] Today only two reels survive, one showing a review of troops after the main ceremony and the other a procession in Calcutta from the end of the royal tour.

[2] The film showcased the use of Kinemacolor, which had been launched by Charles Urban in 1908 as the first successful natural colour motion picture process.

It was produced by Urban's Natural Color Kinematograph Company and he took five camera operators with him: Joseph De Frenes, Albuin Mariner, Alfred Gosden, Hiram Horton and an unidentified fifth (possibly John Mackenzie).

[4] The films were premiered at the Scala Theatre, London on 2 February 1912, with an accompaniment provided by a live orchestra of forty-eight pieces, a chorus of twenty-four, a twenty-piece fife and drum corps, and three bagpipes.

It had a great appeal for middle class audiences that had previously avoided film shows because of their low social status, and it was exhibited before royalty.

Charles Urban (centre) and camera team at Delhi in 1911
Frames from lost sequence of With Our King and Queen Through India showing the state entry into Delhi. Kinemacolor films appear black-and-white - the colour effect occurs in projection