Paul Wyand

Member of The Hundred

Life in Elmbridge

Paul Wyand was born in Hendon, North London, but started his career as a mechanic, at the Brooklands motor racing circuit, to the racing driver and Land Speed Record holder John Parry Thomas.

His uncle, Leslie Wyand, who worked for the American Pathé News, suggested that he combine his spannering with taking photographs to sell through a press agency.

Paul Wyand was in charge of Parry Thomas's car 'Babs' when the latter attempted to win back the Land Speed Record from Malcolm Campbell at Pendine Sands, South Wales on 3rd March 1927. Tragically, Parry Thomas was killed in the attempt, but in May of that year, Paul accepted the offer of a job from his uncle as an assistant cameraman for Pathé News, starting a career which took him around the world.

He wrote an autobiography entitled "Useless if Delayed", published by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. in 1959. (The title refers to the instruction written on cans of urgent newsreel film.)

He died in a Surrey hospital on his 61st birthday in 1968.

Life outside Elmbridge

In his career as a newsreel cameraman, Wyand worked for Fox News, Pathé News and Gazette, and British Movietone, and became one of the greatest newsreel photographers of all time, and enjoyed the friendship of royalty.

He started by filming the crowd scenes accompanying the aviator, Charles Lindbergh's return to the U.S.A. in June 1927, after his solo flight across the Atlantic. In all, he had 5206 assignments included filming the battle of Monte Cassino, Churchill's visit to the U.S.A., crossing the Rhine with the advanced troops, the film of Belsen that was shown at Nuremberg trials, and the German surrender at Luneberg Heath. He filmed the first pictures of our present Queen, the 1948 London and 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, and the Coronation in 1953.

In 1954, he filmed the Royal Tour of the Commonwealth, which was released as a documentary under the title 'The Flight of the White Heron'.

He pioneered 'swing shots' and many techniques used in outside broadcast.

At Movietone in the late 1950s, Wyand gradually moved from behind the camera to management positions, as Assignments Manager and finally, in 1961, Production Manager. He remained with the company until he died in 1968.

Sources

• News on Screen, "Paul Wyand" British Universities Film & Video Council Accessed 22 June 2020.
• Motor Sport magazine, October 1959 and April 1968.