Richard Harris ("Dick")

Dick Harris was born in London, and joined the Warwick Trading Company in 1908, probably in the darkrooms, although he seems also to have worked as a cameraman after the launch of the Warwick Bioscope Chronicle in 1910. Harris then joined British and Colonial, but in 1912 he returned to newsreel work by joining the staff of the Topical Budget, where he was employed in the ‘editorial and news department.' After the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Royal Flying Corps. After 1918 he worked for Broom Studios before rejoining the Topical Budget, where ‘Harris’ is credited as one of the camera team for the ‘DUKE OF YORK HANDICAP’ in October 1923 for No.634-1. In 1931 Harris joined Movietone, where he was described as a specialist in ‘snatching’ stories. Harris was shown in ‘MOVIETONE’S LATEST MOBILE UNITS’ in British Movietone News No.496 from December 1938.

Harris continued to be featured both behind and in front of the camera, and after the outbreak of war in September 1939 he was accredited as cameraman to the Royal Navy at Plymouth. In November 1939 he appeared with Pat Wyand [qv] and Paul Wyand [qv] as evacuees in the comic item ‘FOUR WAR GUYS’ in British Movietone News No.544. Harris filmed at Dunkirk in June 1940, as well as covering RAF stories for Movietone - such as ‘PILOTS FROM INDIA REACH BRITAIN’ in British Movietone News No.593 from October 1940, and ‘BURMA SQUADRON SHOWS ITS PACES’ in No.606A of January 1941. Harris also took film in London during the Blitz, and Gerald Sanger [qv], Movietone’s editor, later recalled ‘some amazing pictures of fired buildings, walls crashing and firemen working amid a blazing inferno turned in by Dick Harris at Plymouth in March 1941.' This appeared as ‘PLYMOUTH, AFTER ROYAL VISIT, HAS FIRE BLITZ’ in British Movietone News No.616A of March 1941.

Harris covered general home front stories for British Movietone News during 1941 and 1942, and was shown being presented to the King - along with Jack Barnett [qv] - in ‘ROYAL GUESTS FOR U.S. TROOPS’ in No.682A from July 1942. Harris continued in this work until 1945, and was in the camera team that filmed ‘VICTORY’ for British Movietone News No.832 of May 1945. In August 1945 Harris was shown filming the Labour Cabinet in ‘HISTORY REPEATED AT NO.10’ in British Movietone News No.847A. When Reg Sutton [qv] joined Movietone in October 1946, Harris was still there as a silent cameraman. In March 1947 Harris provided footage for ‘IDEAL HOME EXHIBITION AGAIN’ in British Movietone News No.927, and in October 1947 he was one of Movietone’s silent cameramen for ‘PRINCESS ELIZABETH LAUNCHES NEW CUNARDER’ in British Movietone News No.961.

Sources

Kine Year Book 1935, p.332, ‘Dick Harris’: C. Chappell ‘Iron Nerves Make Newsreels,' Sunday Despatch, 11/10/1936: BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 1031 (R. Harris dopesheet, January 1941), Number 1740 (Harris dopesheet, 30/10/1947): M. A. A. Sinkins ‘A Salute to the Newsreel Cameramen,' Kinematograph Weekly, 14/1/1943, p.41: G. Sanger ‘The Story of British Movietone News in the War Years,' c.1946, copy in BUFVC.