(John) Gordon Lewis - this “adventurous cameraman”

 

Facing representatives of the Irish film industry in the Odeon room of Dublin’s Metropole cinema in October 1950 were a number of Irish politicians and Dublin born impresario Louis Elliman.  

 

Gathered together to acknowledge the retirement and contribution of Antrim born (John) Gordon Lewis, Elliman described Lewis as a gentleman, cameraman, film renter and as “a chapter of modern Irish history” who he first encountered while Lewis was scrambling around the rubble of the 1916 Easter Rising capturing the aftermath on film. The Metropole itself had been reduced to rubble during the Rising (which would lead to damage claims from the family of Dublin born actor Richard Palethorpe Todd).

 

Lewis’s chapter closed on 14th April 1954. Death notices appeared the following day to announce his passing, confirming his address in Clontarf, and his time with Pathe Pictures Ltd.  The Belfast Telegraph later acknowledged the passing of “an Ulsterman” and their former employee.

 

Little information subsequently surfaced about Gordon Lewis until an RTE documentary in 1993 and then a few items re early Irish cinema that acknowledge Lewis’s role, though his film clips did underpin the monumental 1950's works Mise Eire and Saoirse. 

The Irish Film Institute (IFI) recently completed a great project -  The Irish Independence Film Collection - to bring many Irish films clips back to Ireland from the UK, to give them a “digital clean”, and to add an Irish context. I don’t think (John) Gordon Lewis gets a mention sadly.

Many people interested in Irish history will be very familiar with the film clips Lewis created that now sit on the IFI website, on Pathe’s website and in the Irish Air Corps DVD "On Golden Wings" even if they do not know his name or background. 

 

The IFI material comes via the film clips Lewis sent on to Pathe; the clips in Mise Eire, Saoirse, Irish Destiny and On Golden Wings come from the original films retained by Lewis and there are some differences.

A trip to Dublin to look at Lewis's records in the archives didn't produce much information sadly :

Previous blog post re  (John) Gordon Lewis 

 

 

 

Online Course

September sees the start of an online course (MOOC) on Irish Lives in War and Revolution, touching on the Great War, Easter Rising, War of Independence and Civil War.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/irish-history

Irish Volunteers

For anyone interested in the development, arms, equipment and operation of the Irish Volunteers/Irish National Volunteers in the period 1913 to 1922, there is an active group on Facebook with lots of photos and discussions

http://www.facebook.com/groups/irishvolunteers/

The Irish Volunteers group website is at 

http://irishvolunteers.org/

(John) Gordon Lewis

One chap who keeps cropping up in my research is (John) Gordon Lewis, a press photographer/cameraman.

From Antrim, he enlisted in the British Army on the 14th September 1914, becoming number 18094, Private, Royal Irish Rifles. 101 days later, 23rd December 1914, he was discharged as not likely to make an efficient soldier.

He moved to Dublin and joined a film company run by Norman Whitten. Whitten had filmed the funeral of the victims of the Bachelor's Walk Massacre in 1914 and the funeral of Donovan O'Rossa in 1915. Lewis appears to have done well and later captured much on film whilst also appearing in shots himself :

Richard Mulcahy

Cathal Brugha

Lewis caught the death of Sean Treacy on camera, a work that is often confused with scenes from a fictional film from 1926 called Irish Destiny.

Whitten and Lewis worked on an early Irish film post war re The Days of St Patrick.

Whitten was to return to England while Lewis became a cameraman for British Pathe news.

The work of both these men can be seen in Mise Eire and Saoirse.