THE faces peer out at you, some cheerful, some cheeky. They blow kisses to the camera, draw on a cigarette, share a joke with those standing next to them. Some hold what appear to be race cards in their hands.
But for the preponderance of uniforms, this could have been any day out at the races. In fact, the images come from an extraordinary film made almost exactly 100 years ago.
On a chilly St George's Day weekend on April 24, 1916, troops stationed at Ripon army camp came together with local townspeople for a huge military tournament at Ripon Racecourse.
The day included competitions, races, a cross country run, horse trials and highland dancing - many highland regiments were stationed in Ripon at the time.
Ripon Racecourse sports day, 100 years ago. Image: Yorkshire Film Archive
You wouldn't know it from the happy faces pictured here, but the lives of many people in these photographs were about to be changed forever by the First World War.
Within a few short weeks, many of the Ripon regiments were on their way to the Somme. Some of them would return - many others would not.
One photograph shows a happy, elegant young woman in a round hat, smiling as she looks at the camera. She's holding onto the railings, and in her left hand clutches the programme for the day's events.
She was a nurse - Nurse Adam is the only name we have for her (see photo, top). She worked, apparently, in infectious disease hospitals, and fell in love with a soldier from the Northumberland Fusiliers. Sadly, they were never able to marry ...because he died at Gallipoli.
Others at Ripon Racecourse that day fared better. Bobby Cruikshank, a diminutive 5ft 5in Scotsman who was stationed in Ripon at the time, won the 100 yard dash that day. He was later wounded at the Somme, went on to fight at Ypres, was captured, escaped and re-joined his regiment. He survived the war, emigrated to America... and became a famous professional golfer, finishing runner-up in the 1923 US Open to Bobby Jones.
We know quite a lot about what happened on that St George's Day weekend in Ripon, because it was captured on film.
'Scenes at the Ripon Highland Sports', as the film was called, was made for the manager of Ripon' first cinema, the Palladium.
A still from 'Scenes at the Ripon Highland Sports'. Image: Yorkshire Film Archive
The film was a crafty ruse to try to encourage the hundreds of people who'd been at the racecourse to come along to the cinema the following weekend to see themselves on the big screen.
Whether it worked or not, we don't know. But the film certainly captured for posterity a few fleeting moments of happiness before many of those pictured were overtaken by the storms of war.
The film has now been restored by the York-based Yorkshire Film Archive, and at the weekend racegoers at Ripon were able to watch clips from the film on the racecourse's giant screen.
A still from the film. Image: Yorkshire Film Archive
The poignant photographs on these pages today are stills from the film - and they capture a unique moment in history. "I am constantly reminded as I see the faces of the troops smiling and waving that these were not actors, they were real people – young men, sometimes boys, about to face a future that is so difficult for us to contemplate," says Sue Howard, the Yorkshire Film Archive's director.
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