Richard Colwyn Wood ("Bob")

Richard Colwyn Wood was a cameraman for Universal News, who became a war cameraman after the outbreak of war in September 1939. Wood lost two cameras in action before in June 1944 becoming one of the six newsreel cameramen assigned to cover D-Day, along with Jack Ramsden [qv] and Alec Tozer [qv] of Movietone, Jock Gemmell [qv] of Pathe, John Turner [qv] of Gaumont, and Jimmy Gemmell [qv] of Paramount. On 3 June 1944 Wood filmed invasion preparations, and on 6 June he was stationed on one of the flagships, but went ashore on day four with his Eyemo camera. He took a lot of film of Colonel Langley of Combined Operations, but it was censored by SHAEF. Wood admitted to being scared in action, and noted soon afterwards that ‘D-Day was something of a nightmare.' His footage was used in ‘Liberating Armies Invade Normandy’ in British Movietone News No.784 of June 1944, the shotlist noting that his film showed ‘Morning service aboard ship. Flagship flies ‘Good Luck, Drive On’ from mast. Pan shots of armada, ship all types get under way.' According to Jock Gemmell [qv] of Pathe, Wood was in the ‘Warwick Castle’ when it was torpedoed, and he ‘broke an arm and cracked his ribs...but he was saved by an L.C.I. in heavy seas.' In May 1945 Wood filmed the liberation of the Channel Islands, with Jimmy Gemmell [qv] of Paramount, the story appearing as ‘OUR DEAR CHANNEL ISLANDS LIBERATED’ in Universal News No.1549. His daughter adds, ‘He maintained an audio-visual hire and sale business as well as a corporate film company throughout the war. Whenever the call came he would leave work and go off to cover action with one of the armed services. After the war he continued to run his business until he was 70 years old and died in 1992, aged 91.'

Sources

BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 1385 (Wood’s rota dopesheet, 3/4 June 1944), Number 1484 (Wood’s rota dopesheet, 12/5/1945): R. Colwyn Wood in ‘D-Day as the Newsreel Boys Saw it,' Cine Technician, September-October 1944, pp.87-8: J.C. Gemmell ‘Newsreels - Ancient and Modern,' Cine Technician, January-February 1952, p.5. Family information from daughter Annie Wood, August 2001.