Douglas Webb 1922-1996

Douglas Webb was born 12 September 1922 in Leytonstone, London. He worked for Ilford then the London News Agency in Fleet Street as a printer.

He joined the RAF on his 18th birthday and served as an air gunner with 49 and 617 Squadrons. In 1943, Douglas took part in the dam busters' raid. The plane on which he was front gunner attacked the Ennepe dam. With no anti-aircraft firing at them they had time to do three trial runs before releasing the upkeep. The following explosion, however, failed to damage the dam. His plane was the last to return from that now legendary raid, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Medal.

No photo is known to exist of the crew posing with their aircraft, for the pilot, Bill Townsend, considered it unlucky to do so.

Back on civie street in 1946, he rejoined the London News Agency as a staff photographer. He stayed with the LNA until he was offered a contract with the Rank Organisation at Denham Studios. After which he transferred to Gainsborough Pictures at Islington Studios. The first film he worked on was Miranda.

As the British film industry contracted, he opened his own studio in Greek Street, in the heart of London's Soho, where he specialised in theatrical and film portraits.

In 1948, while I was at St Martins School of Art, I posed for a local amateur photographer who suggested that I could make a guinea an hour if I did the same for professionals. Being in the position of having to fund my own education I took his advice. I walked into a professional photographers' studio on Greek Street and asked if he did nudes. He said yes, and that was how I met Douglas Webb. Only when I was putting on my school scarf after my first session, did he realise I was underage. Thankfully, my father agreed to sign the necessary model release form. I could not have known at the time, what great impact on my life that meeting with Douglas Webb was to have.

Douglas Webb had a prolific creative life in still photography, cinema and television. As his studio expanded, he moved to very much larger premises in Albany Street, near Regents Park. As a freelancer, he worked on numerous British TV shows, doing the front and back projections. His television work includes the title sequences for Special Branch and The Sweeney for Thames Television. For all you trivia buffs the fingerprints used on the title sequence in The Sweeney were none other than my own. Doug was also responsible for the special photographic backing in The Killing of Sister George and the colour transparency shot in Italy for the film Krull in 1983. This was projected at 28x64 ft in Pinewood Studios. In 1986 Douglas Webb and I moved to the Isle of Wight.

Douglas Webb worked on the following films as the stills photographer:

The Seventh Dawn, Susannah York, 1964
I've Gotta Horse, Billy Fury, 1965
Go to Blazes, Dave King, Robert Morley, 1962
The Spy with a Cold Nose, Laurence Harvey, 1966
Hard Contract, James Coburn, 1969
The Virgin and the Gipsy, Joanna Shimkus, Franco Nero, 1969
Perfect Friday, Ursula Andress, Stanley Baker, 1970
The Promise, Ian McKellen, 1969
And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python, 1971
Our Miss Fred, Danny La Rue. 1972
The Ghoul, Peter Cushing, John Hurt, 1975
The Sweeney, 1975