News on Screen

Guy Nickalls was educated at Eton before joining the Rifle Brigade during the First World War, and seeing active service in Salonika in 1918. In 1919 he joined the Foreign Office, but in the following year went to Magdalen College Oxford to read History. Nickalls rowed in the 1920 Olympics, and for Oxford in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races of 1921, 1922, and 1923 - when he was the Oxford President). In 1926 Nickalls joined the advertising firm of Alfred Pemberton Ltd., but he also broadcast on rowing for the BBC, and in 1927 provided the first running commentary of the Boat Race. In 1928 he again rowed in the Olympics, and in November 1929 his wedding was covered by Topical Budget in No.950-1 as ‘WATERMEN AT WEDDING OF FAMOUS OARSMAN.' In April 1933 Nickalls provided the commentary for the British Movietone News report of the Boat Race, which appeared as ‘LIGHT BLUES WIN 1933 BOAT RACE’ in No.200. He was also shown in close-up at the start of the report. Nickalls provided similar commentaries for the 1934, 1935, and 1936 Boat Races, as well as for other rowing events, but in 1937 he was appointed as the Oxford coach - a story itself featured in ‘ROWING - G.O. NICKALLS TO COACH OXFORD’ in British Movietone News No.397. Nickalls was interviewed in ‘ROWING - OXFORD TEAM ON THE RIVER’ in No.406 from March 1937, and appeared in ‘VARSITY CREWS’ in No.510 from March 1939, but was not credited for any further newsreel commentaries.

Sources

Who’s Who 1897-1996 CD-ROM.