Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill | Photographers | Great War

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Hon Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill born in London, England. His father a pickle merchant – one of his colleagues later recalling him as a ‘member of a pickle family.’

Film Industry

Bovill entered the film industry in about 1906 with Gaumont, and joined Will Barker’s [qv] Barker Motion Photography around 1909. Cameraman on Barker’s ‘Sixty Years a Queen’ (1913) (with Leslie Eveleigh), ‘East Lynne’ (1913), ‘Greater Love Hath No Man’ (1913), and ‘Jane Shore’ (1915) (with Eveleigh and Stanley Mumford [qv]). Also claimed that Bovill one of the darkroom staff who developed Barker’s 1915 Grand National footage. This must have been when he was on leave from the army. For on the outbreak of war in August 1914 Bovill joined up. In October 1915 he went to France as a driver with the 1st London Brigade Royal Field Artillery.

CWRO Photographer

In July 1916 Bovill transferred to the Canadian War Records Office as official cameraman. Given the rank of temporary Honorary Lieutenant. In August 1916 filming the visit to France of the Canadian Minister of Defence, Lieut.-Gen. Sir Sam Hughes.

Officer helping a battered Canadian to Dressing Station. September, 1916. A Captain (likely of the Canadian Army Medical Corps), who is wearing a ribbon for the Military Cross above his left chest pocket, is accompanying the soldier, who is wounded in the arm, leg, and face. At right, another photographer, likely Canadian War Records Office official kinematographer Lt. Oscar Bovill, is also filming. MIKAN No. 3395791

Battle of Flers-Courcelette

In November 1916 reported that during the Somme battles Lt Bovill in the front line during the Canadian capture of Courcelette. Reported that he had obtained excellent pictures. Truth told, Bovill in the front line trenches, but his material turned out to be of poor quality.

MIKAN No. 3194495 Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill — Canadian Official Photographer with artillery watching a battle on the Western Front. September, 1916. Photographer William Ivor Castle (at right) with a Canadian War Records Office cinematographer, Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill and other officers, recording the bombardment of German positions during the Battle of Courcelette. Bovill, with tripod, seems to be operating a Moy & Bastie cine camera, and may be taking film related to his “CANADIAN VICTORY AT COURCELETTE”, while Castle is likely holding a Goerz camera. MIKAN No. 3194495

The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, which took place 15-22 September 1916, was an attempt by the British Corps to alleviate pressure on the Verdun Salient.

Vimy Ridge

Bovill afterwards in London from January to March 1917, ‘to superintend development of Canadian Official Film for War Office Committee,’ before returning to GHQ to handle the filming of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. The material he produced edited into the official film ‘Vimy Ridge’ (1917), but unfortunately, also of such poor quality that Bovill offered to resign in June 1917.

Bovill placed in a secondary role and John A Benjamin MacDowell, considered one of the best cameramen of the war, took over the role of documenting the Canadians in 1917. Afterwards, Bovill transferred to the War Office Topical Budget.

MIKAN No. 3405553 Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill — Canadian Official Photographer with other officers watching a bombardment. October, 1916. Photographer William Ivor Castle (with camera held low) with a Canadian War Records Office cinematographer, Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill and other officers, recording the bombardment of German positions on the Somme. Bovill appears to be using a Moy & Bastie cine camera (on tripod), while Castle is most likely using a Goerz camera fitted with a Zeiss lens. MIKAN No. 3405553

War Office Topical Budget

The Topical Budget a silent newsreel first issued in September 1911. During the Great War, the British Government took control, which led to a confusing variety of names, including the War Office Official Topical Budget from May 1917, and the Pictorial News (Official) from February 1918.

In May 1919, the reel reverted to the name Topical Budget, but now owned by the newspaper magnate Edward Hulton. From September 1922 to August 1923, he released it as the Daily Sketch Topical Budget. The reel never converted to sound, and ceased production in March 1931.

Bovill filmed the US troops in London for Topical Budget No.312-2 of August 1917, but he was considered a careless worker and in November 1917 finally dismissed and replaced with Geoffrey H Malins. Others like Walter Buckstone and Frank Bassill also travelled to the front looking for suitable Canadian shots to meet the film mandate.

USA enters the war. American troops land in France.

Observer

Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill apparently hoped to join the Tank Corps, but he may have joined the RAF, where it was later claimed that he had been an Observer.

Two planes practise combat demonstration for Hendon’s Aerial Pageant.

On his demobilisation in 1919 Bovill joined Monarch Films to work on their ‘Horse Shoe Comedies,’ and he also did regular freelance work for the Topical Budget, starting with the ‘AERIAL PAGEANT’ in No.462-2 of July 1920.

By 1921 listed as ‘Official Kinematographer to London Underground and Omnibus Control,’ and in about 1926 filmed the building of the LGOC NS-type bus at Chiswick, appearing in the credits of the resulting film as ‘F Oscar Bovill of the London General Omnibus Company Photographic Department.’ However, Bovill combined this with regular freelance work for the Topical Budget in 1921, 1922 and 1923, including filming the Cabinet at 10 Downing Street with Taylor for No.584-1 in November 1922.

No. 10 Downing Street, London.

In the late 1930s Bovill was cameraman on the Old Mother Riley films. He afterwards joined Pathé, and acted as a war correspondent after the outbreak of war in September 1939.

Second World War

In September 1941 Bovill filmed the arrival of the US Army in Iceland providing footage that became ‘USA TROOPS IN ICELAND’ in Pathe Gazette No.41/82 of October 1941.

By 1942 Bovill was providing domestic footage for Pathe, beginning with ‘LION CUBS’ in Pathe Pictorial No.305, but later that year the company sent him to the Far East. In 1943 he filmed for the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, and provided film of the ‘SUDAN DEFENCE FORCE’ for Pathe Pictorial No.382 of July 1943. He returned at the end of the year, and provided ‘WELSH SCENIC’ film for Pathe Pictorial No.406 of January 1944.

Sudan defence forces

Burma

Bovill then sent to Burma, and featured in the story ‘RAIDS IN THE RAIN’ in Pathe Gazette No.44/19 of March 1944. In December 1944 Bovill also provided footage of the 14th Army Bridging the Chindwin which became ‘THE ROAD TO MANDALAY’ in Pathe Gazette No.45/5 of January 1945. As Bovill noted in his shotlist, it was difficult to film the Burma campaign: ‘The hazards are difficult to pictureise [sic] as the jungle is intensely thick and the speed at which the troops are advancing gives one little scope unless you are there at the critical moment.’ In March 1945 Bovill provided ‘THE ROAD TO CHINA – STORY OF THE LEDO-BURMA ROAD’ for Pathe Gazette No.45/20.

Dramatic story of Ledo – Burma highway told by Mayor Frank Owen

By September 1945 Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill back in London, where he filmed Lord Beaverbrook for Pathe. Bovill still working for the company in 1946, but he later began freelancing for Movietone, and was in the camera team which filmed the ‘ROYAL SILVER WEDDING’ for British Movitone News No.986a in April 1948. In the same year Bovill worked at the Nettlefold Studios in Walton-on-Thames, on the crime film ‘Paper Orchid’ (1949), and also worked at the same studio on other productions during 1949.

The Funeral of his majesty King George V in 1936, London. The King died at the age of 83.

Bovill was also in the camera team which filmed the ‘FUNERAL OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE VI’ for British Movietone News No.1185 of February 1952, and was in the team which filmed ‘THE CORONATION’ for British Movietone News No.1252A of June 1953. ‘Oscar F. Bovill’ was still listed as a freelance cameraman in 1973.

YouTube

In 2014 the entire British Pathé newsreel archive published on YouTube. 105,000 videos, or 3,500 hours of film ranging from the 1890s to the 1970s made freely available on YouTube via http://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe.

Sources

Public Archives of Canada, Record Group 9, III, vol.120, File 6-B-574: House of Lords Record Office, Beaverbrook Papers, BBK/E/2/2 (Bovill file): Kine Year Book 1921, p.590, and Kine Year Book 1922, p.304, ‘F. Oscar Bovill’: British Film Institute, Related Material 1504, ‘World War 1:4,’ notes by Marie Seton, c.1937, pp.20-21: Ciné; Technician, March/April 1938, p.216; November-December 1945, p.113: BUFVC, British Paramount News files, Issue Number 1108 (Bovill’s rota dopesheets, September 1941), Number 1448 (Bovill’s rota dopesheet, 12/12/1944), Number 1463 (Bovill’s rota dopesheet, 1/3/1945): M. A. A. Sinkins ‘A Salute to the Newsreel Cameramen,’ Kinematograph Weekly, 14/1/1943, p.44: Kevin Brownlow’s interview with Brooks-Carrington, 20/10/1972, transcript p.21: ‘Kemp’s Film and Television Year Book (International) 1973-4,’ (London, 1973), p.195, ‘Camera Operators’: J. Ballantyne (ed) ‘Researcher’s Guide to British Newsreels: Vol.II’ (1988), p.13 extract 376: Letter from Bernard King, 4/2/1997, including information from ‘To-Day’s Cinema’ 1948-9.

Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill in the Great War