(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

London Times 1920

An interesting paragraph in The Paper Wall by Ian Kenneally attributed to the London Times 1920 (I'd like to see the issue to confirm this).

While critical of Sinn Fein and the IRA for their actions, the Times had a few words to say about Government forces after the murders at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday

"...an Army already perilously undisciplined, and a police force avowedly beyond control have defiled, by heinous acts, the reputation of England; while the Government, who are the trustees of that reputation, are not free from suspicion of dishonourable connivance."

The paragraph could equally be applied to the deaths at Bachelors Walk, the murders undertaken during the Easter Rising and activities in Northern Ireland from partition onwards.

Auxiliaries and Tans in Killaloe

An interesting account of the pacification work undertaken by Auxiliaries and Blacks and Tans in Killaloe by Mr R C Grey, a retired British civil servant

R C Grey pamphlet

The unit based at Lakeside Hotel (G Company, ADRIC) were involved in a shoot out with off duty members of the Royal Irish Constabulary

Castleconnell Shooting

Kevin Barry, Dublin, 1920

Kevin Barry was just 18 when he was hung by executioner John Ellis in Dublin in November 1920.

The 3 British soldiers who died as a result of the raid on Monk's Bakery where Kevin Barry was captured were :


Private Harold Washington, aged 15 (born Salford, Lancashire on 4th October 1904). Died at the scene of the raid.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/378591/WASHINGTON,%20H

Findagrave


Private Marshall Whitehead, aged 20, born 3rd quarter (July to September) 1900. Died of wounds.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2751877/WHITEHEAD,%20MARSHALL

Findagrave


Private Thomas Humphries, aged 19. Died of wounds.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/411232/HUMPHRIES,%20T

Findagrave


A wide range of propaganda was generated re the young age of Kevin Barry. The British don't appear to have countered this propaganda very well - there doesn't appear to have been too much done to use the age of Private Washington in relation to pressure re Kevin Barry's age (Harold Washington's death registration lists him as 19).