Son spots father on historic Dunkirk footage
24 Mar 2016
WATCH: Reels of film discovered at John Rylands Library reveal family man’s wartime adventure
A Cheshire man spotted his father on historic footage of the Dunkirk evacuation which was originally discovered at The University of Manchester Library.
Peter Brown, who lives and works in the Lake District as a pianist, was astonished to see his father feature so prominently in the films which were shot 75 years ago, during the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk in 1940.
Last year the footage, which captures key moments of the rescue from Dunkirk of over 300,000 British and allied troops trapped by advancing German forces, generated substantial media interest because they provide an incredibly rare and unique insight.
The films were shot by Lieutenant Philip Roderick Hall who was serving aboard the destroyer HMS Whitehall, one of hundreds of naval vessels, merchant ships and small boats that took part in the rescue.
The reels of film were discovered at the University’s John Rylands Library by a member of the Heald-Hall family whose remarkable archive of correspondence, letter-books and diaries, spanning from 1866 to 1987, is one of hundreds of outstanding collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, maps and visual materials housed in the Library.
Peter Brown came across the digitised versions of the reels of black and white footage on the University’s website while researching pictures of the first destroyer on which his father served during World War II.
He said: “Imagine my astonishment when noticing in reel one my own father, coming into shot from the left and knocking over the officer who was sitting on the lilo! He appears prominently in the swimming pool scenes in reels one and two, helping the dog onto a lilo and diving and jumping into the pool in various ways with the lilo.”
John Hodgson, Manuscripts and Archives Manager, said: “It is astounding that we were able to reunite a son with such precious memories of his father. We took the decision to release the footage to the media because we felt they were an important record of such an historic moment when our servicemen and civilians risked their lives to rescue the stricken army. But we never imagined we’d end up giving a family a window into the life of one of their relatives.”
One of the YouTube films can be viewed:
The second reel can be seen:
The original reels have been donated to the Imperial War Museum in London for specialist preservation.