TALES OF PRINCES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 355, 16 May 1928, Page 9

TALES OF PRINCES

PHOTOGRAPHER’S MEMORIES

STORIES OF THE WAR

IN the early part of 1917 false rumours were spread through Belgium to the effect that King Albert had abdicated his throne, leaving his country and his subjects helpless preys to the attacking Germans. In reality the leader of the Belgians was on the front with his troops at a particularly dangerous point, only five miles from Ypres. The necessity of making this fact known to his countrymen was imperative and immediate.

That is why Richard N. Speaight, Court photographer to the Royal Families of both Britain and Belgium, received an urgent request at his home in England one night to hasten ■to the Belgian front and there to photograph King Albert in his habiliments of the trenches in order that the picture might be spread broadcast throughout the King’s country and his subjects reassured. Arriving at the Belgian frontier Mr. Speaight, now a visitor for a short time in the United States, was placed in a special car and whirled along the Belgian roads to the lighting area while sentries stood aside respectfully, shouting “Service du roi!” as the car passed bearing the gentleman of the camera on his important mission.

On reaching the designated point on the “front” Mr. Speaight was hustled into a dug-out where the King of the Belgians, having just returned from a tour of inspection through the trenches, was waiting in a battle-scarred "tin helmet.” the collar of his trench coat turned up about his neck, his face still streaked with mud and rainwater.

Hastily adjusting his camera, the photographer posed his royal sitter carefully, set off his flashlight and took the picture. A few days later copies of this photograph were being dropped throughout Belgium from airplanes by the hundreds of thousands. On the back of each copy was a message to the effect that the picture had just been taken by Mr. Speaight and that the King was then, had been continually and would continue to be on “free Belgian soil” fighting with his troops at the front. Later the same picture was used on a special war issue of stamps put out by the Belgian Government. Since then the photograph has been printed all over the world and is generally conceded to be the most striking picture ever taken of King Albert. This episode recounted here is just one taken from the notebook of a man now in America as a guest of the Photographers’ Association of America and who in his 30-odd years as a photographer has seen the most striking, vivid and important personalities of the time parade before his camera.

Besides King Albert, and also Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, Mr. Speaight has photographed the present Prince of Wales, Princess Mary, the present Queen of Spain, the Duchess of York and her baby, the Crown Prince of Japan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Countess of Warwick, Lord Northciiffe, Lord Rothschild, Joseph Cham-

berlain, Lady Astor. the former Duchess of Marlborough, who was Consuelo Vanderbilt, and many others. It is the contention of Mr. Speaight, who attended the annual convention of the Photographers’ Association of America, held recently at Louisville, that the old adage “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” does not obtain when the head is being posed for a photograph. “Of course, any- photographer has good reason to know,” Mr. Speaight said with a genial smile, “how reluctantly, even fearfully, the average person sits before a camera to have his or her picture taken. The photographer who tries to get an easy, natural pose has his work cut out for him, and a hard job it is. But with royalty and members of tlie aristocracy generally I have had less difficulty in this regard than with the usual run of my other ‘sitters/ “Of course, royal personages and members of the aristocracy realise that they, in effect, belong to the public, and they therefore appreciate the importance of ‘taking a good picture/ They know that ‘being a good sitter' is, or should be, part of their stock in trade, just as it is the stock in trade of the moving picture actor or actress.”

When He “Took” Prince of Wales Mr. Speaight remembers what a distinct thrill he experienced when, shortly after having launched himself upon the career of professional photographer, he was “commanded by Queen Victoria to come down to Osborne and there to photograph a little lad who is now the Prince of Wales. Others pictured on that visit were the children of Prince Henry of Battenburg, Prince Leopold, Prince Maurice and Princess Ena, now Queen of Spain. “An incident happened on that occasion,” said Mr. Speaight, “which illustrates very clearly how rigidly the rules of court etiquette were observed then as contrasted with the present day. I had set my camera up in an apartment adjoining the private suite of Queen Victoria and was making final preparations for taking the pictures when a lady-in-waiting to the Queen entered the room, saw my apparatus and crossed to me hastily, dismay and anxiety written in her face.

“ ‘You’ll have to take that down/ she said, pointing to my camera and tripod. ‘Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, is coming through this room now and your camera will annoy her.' “I hastily complied with this injunction, of course. But how differently members of the Royal family do things nowadays! Last year I was making some pictures at the town house of the Duchess of York. It was necessary that I should return a second day to complete my work. As I was about to remove the came #.i, tripod and other apparatus from the room the Duchess of York smiled genially. “ ‘Oh, you don’t have to go to all that bother/ she said. ‘Just leave them where they are till to-morrow/ ” Another instance of the “democratisation of the aristocracy” was afforded him, Mr. Speaight recalled, on the occasion of a visit to the country estate of Lord Waldorf and Lady Astor on the Thames.

“A fete of some sort was being held in the town that day,” the photographer said, “with the result that all the maids and butlers were off for a holiday. And I recall that when there was some furniture which had to be moved Lady Astor turned to her husband with a smile, and said, ‘Waldorf, it’s a servants’ holiday. You and Mr. Speaight here lend a hand to this furniture so we can get it moved.’ Lord Astor and I both rolled up our sleeves and set to work.”

Among Mr. Speaight’s most prized possession are two photographs of the Prince of Wales, one taken in 1914 on the eve of the future British ruler’s departure for the “front,” the other taken four years later, after the cessation of hostilities.

Showing the pictures with pride to his visitor, Mr. Speaight said, “Here you see written the story of a boy’s transformation into a man. On the first face is the carefree, easy-going expression of a lad ‘just down’ from the university who is coming into real contact with the world for thjfe first time and finding it all rather entertaining and amusing and hara'iy worth getting very much wrought up or puzzled about. But here,” went on the photographer, pointing to the second picture, “is clearly written the mature sense of responsibility and the acceptance and understanding of a man’s duties which four years of war have stamped upon the face of the former ‘university lad.’ ”

Mr. Speaight in discussing his present eminent position in Great Britain and attempting to explain it, said: “One thing my experience has taught me above all things is that any one to make a success in life must have not only a thorough, wellgrounded technical knowledge of his trade or profession but must likewise have an accompanying knowledge of psychology. He should be at all times the ‘diplomat/ quick to sum up a situation, to divine the unseen potentialities of that situation and to perceive the hidden, secret, unspoken forces and meanings in back of it. Mr. Speaight paid a sincere, earnest tribute to the present status enjoyed by photography in America. In addition to being “warrant holder” to the Prince of Wales and the King and Queen of the Belgians, Mr. Speaight is a Chevalier of the Order of Leopold 11., a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, life Governor of the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, and treasurer and past-president of the Professional Photographers’ Association. In 1919 he was retained as official photo grapher to the Spitzbergen expedition.