News on Screen

Ken Higgins was born in London and entered the film industry in 1934 as a camera trainee with the GPO Film Unit. He rose to become assistant cameraman, but left in 1939. After the outbreak of war Higgins reportedly did some work for British Paramount News, but in 1940 he joined the Army Film Unit, and served in Burma and the Middle East. According to one account Higgins left the army in 1945, and ‘on being demobilised he joined Metro News (M.G.M.) as newsreel cameraman, remaining until 1948.' However, it is known that in this period Higgins also did some work for Movietone, being credited in the team that filmed the FA Cup Final for ‘CHARLTON’S CUP’ in British Movietone News No.934 of April 1947. Higgins did further work in Movietone camera teams in May and June 1947, but his last credit was for ‘THE FIRST TEST’ in No.940A of June 1947, when he worked with Martin Gray [qv]. Higgins’ only known Metro News assignment came in July 1947, when he filmed the scuttling of the ‘Empire Lark,' with 7,000 tons of gas shells, for MGM in London. In November 1947 Higgins filmed the wedding of Princess Elizabeth, but the company he worked for is not known. In 1948 Higgins joined Gainsborough Pictures as a cameraman in the Technicolor department.

Sources

BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 1714 (Higgins’ rota dopesheet, 21/7/1947), Number 1746 (Higgins rota dopesheet, 20/11/1947): P. Noble (ed) ‘British Film Yearbook 1949-50’ (London, 1949), p.572: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels’ (BUFVC, 1983), p.92.