Royal Commonwealth Society Film Collection

The Royal Commonwealth Society Film Collection contains twenty-one original amateur films made primarily in Africa, South and South East Asia, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and the US. It also contains viewing copies of three Ministry of Information and government-commissioned films. The films have been recently digitized, catalogued and researched and are now available for viewing on the Streaming Media Service, University of Cambridge (see Media items below).

The original footage belongs mainly to the Tymms Film Collection with seventeen 16mm and 8mm colour and b/w films made in Africa, South and South East Asia and West Indies between the mid-1920s and the early 1960s. Sir Frederick Tymms (1889-1987) worked on the development of air routes in Africa and India, before becoming Director of Civil Aviation in India, 1931-1942, then Director General, 1945-1947. During the 1920s – 1960s Sir Frederick filmed on several occasions in Africa (Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya), India (Hyderabad, Jaipur, Shimla, Delhi, Bombay), Kashmir, the West Indies (Dominica), and in Canada (Montreal, Prince Edward Island). Some of the key topics covered by Sir Frederick include gold mining in the Mpanda District (Tanzania), the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation meeting at Montreal on 19 June 1952, and travel scenes in Bombay, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, and Karachi.

The RCS Film Collection also includes three 16mm films commissioned by the South African Aid to Britain Fund, titled ‘West African Tour’ (November 1955 - January 1956). The South African Aid films document the tour undertaken by six British men and women in the Gold Coast and Nigeria – the tour was meant ‘to give a representative group of British youth experience of conditions of life and work in the Gold Coast and Nigeria’.

The RCS Film Collection also includes a 16mm colour film made by Malcolm John MacDonald (politician and diplomat, 1901-1981) showing a festival of Chinese fashions (c. 1951).

Almost all the RCS films have corresponding RCS cross-archival paper and photographic references.

Lastly, the RCS film collection holds viewing copies of the ‘Colonial Cinemagazine 29 – Installation of H.R.H. Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone as Chancellor of University College of West Indies’ (Colonial Film Unit, 1950), and of the ‘Royal Tour of South Africa’ (British Movietonews, 1947). These films may be viewed by current staff and students of the University of Cambridge (using your Raven password) and by others upon request only in Cambridge University Library's Royal Commonwealth Society Department. Please contact rcs@lib.cam.ac.uk to make an appointment.

As an introduction to the collection, there are two podcasts by Cambridge academics, film theorist Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes, and cultural historian Dr Sujit Sivasundaram, in which they reveal their favourite films.

Image: 'Tymms Film 8 © Royal Commonwealth Society Collections, Cambridge University Library'