John Cotter ("Jack")

John Cotter was the son of Jack Cotter [qv], and the cousin of Terry Cotter [qv]. John Cotter was also a cameraman, and in 1941 he joined the Army Film and Photographic Unit, working in Gibraltar, Malta and Italy. In March 1944 Cotter provided footage that became ‘YUGOSLAV PARTISANS TRAIN IN MALTA’ in Universal News No.1437 of the following month. Cotter was demobilised in 1945, and joined the Universal News. In March 1948 he was involved with Ronnie Noble [qv] and Stan Crockett [qv] in pirating the Lincolnshire handicap from Pathé, the result being shown as ‘THE LINCOLNSHIRE HANDICAP’ in Universal News No.1843. Even Pathé congratulated them on ‘one of the best pinches ever.' In December 1948 Cotter worked with the Royal Rota Cameraman to take the first pictures of Queen Elizabeth II with Prince Charles, which appeared as ‘THE ROYAL BABY’ in Universal News No.1922. In January 1950 Cotter worked with Ronnie Noble [qv] and John Turner [qv] to film the wreck of the submarine Truculent for ‘SUBMARINE RAMMED’ in Universal News No.2035. Noble also recalled working with Cotter in February 1953, when they may both have been on the BBC Television Newsreel.

Sources

Cinema, 20/9/1950, p.15, ‘Newsreel Camera Aces’: R. Noble ‘Shoot First!: Assignments of a newsreel cameraman’ (London, 1955), pp.119-22, 161, 265: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels’ (BUFVC, 1983), p.91.