John Gordon Lewis

Gordon Lewis started as a press photographer in about 1908, before becoming an art editor. He then transferred to the film industry, and in about 1915 joined Kellester Films and Irish Events in Dublin as their head cameraman. Lewis was cameraman on their production ‘In the Days of Saint Patrick’ (1920), but he seems to have begun working for Pathe soon afterwards. By 1925 he was certainly working for the Pathe Gazette in Dublin, his first credit being for ‘DUBLIN HORSE SHOW’ in No.G1214 of August 1925. From January 1927, when he provided ‘LACROSSE MATCH IN DUBLIN’ for Pathe Gazette No.1362, Lewis was regularly employed on Irish stories for the Pathe Gazette, although his work was often confined to the Dublin edition of the reel. However, Lewis was also credited in the camera teams for ‘THE GRAND NATIONAL, 1927’ in Pathe Gazette No.1384 of March 1927, for ‘THE DERBY 1929’ in No.1613 of June 1929, and for similar events each year. Lewis also covered TT races on the Isle of Man, starting in June 1927 with ''TOURIST TROPHY’ RACES’ in No.1407. Lewis’s last surviving credit for Pathe is ‘IRELAND v ITALY DAVIS CUP TIE’ in Pathe Super Sound Gazette No.38/38 of May 1938, although he was still being listed as Pathe’s Dublin Branch Manager as late as 1945, and according to Robert Monks [qv] ‘finished working for the [Pathe] News about 1949.'

Sources

Kine Year Book 1921, p.592, ‘J. Gordon Lewis’; Kine Year Book 1946 (1945), p.358; R. Monks to British Pathe, 15/2/1999.