News on Screen

Walter Davies was apparently working for Gaumont in 1910 when the Gaumont Graphic was launched, and he subsequently worked as cameraman on that newsreel as well as on the Warwick Bioscope Chronicle, Williamson’s Animated News, and Topical Budget. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Welsh Fusiliers, but in 1917 he seems to have applied to become an official cameraman - an application by ‘a cameraman named Davis [sic]' was certainly turned down in that year, on the grounds that he was ‘A1’ medically. However, Davies was subsequently wounded, and this enabled him to make the transfer, becoming a cameraman for the War Office Cinematograph Committee in March 1918, and working also for the Ministry of Information on news filming in Britain. He made short films such as ‘Remounts at Russley Park,' filmed in August 1918, and his first known item in the Pictorial News (Official) was film of ‘DEPTFORD RED CROSS WEEK’ in No.368-1 of September 1918. He also filmed ‘OUR MERCHANT SERVICE HEROES’ for War Office Official Topical Budget/Pictorial News (Official) No. 373-2 of October 1918, and Davies was also credited with filming ‘GERMANY SURRENDERING HER FLEET’ for No.378-1 in November 1918. He also worked as an official cameraman at the Versailles Peace Conference, providing material which began with ‘THE PEACEMAKERS’ in Pictorial News (Official) No.386-1’ in January 1919.

After demobilisation Davies continued to do freelance work for the Topical Budget, beginning with film of the airship R33 for No.393-2 in March 1919. Davies also did work for Gaumont, and was one of several cameramen who filmed the Cup Final for ‘THE CUP COMES SOUTH’ in Topical Budget No.974-2 of April 1930. The handwritten credits for British Paramount News No.493 of November 1935 also seem to include Davies, in the camera team for ‘GREECE RECALLS MONARCH.' According to one account he later died as a result of his wartime injuries. There is a series of cartoons of newsreel cameramen drawn by Davies, including one self-portrait, publishing in the Kinematography Weekly between October 1918 and March 1919. Among those portrayed are Frank Bassill, Norton Gardner, Charles Heath, John Hutchins, Harold Jeapes, Jimmy Taylor, Ariel Varges, Jack Wiggins, George Woods-Taylor and Frank Danvers Yates.

Sources

House of Lords Record Office, Beaverbrook Papers, BBK/E/2/8: Kinematograph Weekly, 28/11/1918, p.66, ‘Trade and General News’: Kine Year Book 1921, p.591, ‘Walter Evan Davies’: Cine Technician, April-May 1940, p.25: Stephen Badsey’s 1981 IWM guide, ‘Walter E. Davies’.