Beschreibung:

CINEMATIC ARCHIVE OF BRIGADIER DUDLEY CLARKE, 1930-1970 An interesting collection of 16mm cinefilms, tools, accessories, and hand-written records belonging to Brigadier Dudley Clarke (27 April 1899 – 7 May 1974), best known as the chief strategist behind British military deception operations during World War II. Comprising 16mm cinefilms in their canisters (16), labeled with the following subjects: AA London Jerusalem, 1936; BB Palestine Rebellion 1936 (Miss Wall); C Palestine & Syria; DD Darkest Africa; Reel E Three Months Leave April - July 1937; EE Three Months Leave; F 1939; G N Africa 1939 / 1963; G Africa '40; I Misc & J People; K Mafraq, Chainat Indonesia, Orion Colombo, Aden, BW 1955; L Australia 1955-1956 ; O West Indies 1964-1965; Reed N Africa 1963. Other film and photographic objects and accessories in the collection include a 16mm reel rewinder; quik-splice tapes; a bottle of cinecol; a set of Kodak colour filters; spare spools; boxes of 16mm processed film with Clarke's address (7) (subjects include: London River, 1971; London River 1972; London River I May 1971 from Dolphin Square; London River 2 July - August 1971; St Margaret's May 1961); bound film notes register index titled DW Clarke Register of Films, which includes alphabetised lists of reel subjects and measured footage, the majority corresponding to the titled reels listed above; an end frame card with a D Clarke Films logo. Housed in a wooden trunk measuring 900 x 330 x 210mm, stamped on the upper lid 'DW Clarke', with the remants of various fragile stickers used in transit. Brigadier Dudley Clarke was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1899; after the Second Boer War, his father moved their family back to his native Britain. As a teenager, Clarke was eager to pursue a career in the military. He trained with the Royal Artillery and Royal Flying Corps, but was too young to see active duty during WWI. After the war, Clarke took up various postings in the Mediterranean and Middle East, where he began formulating disinformation tactics on behalf of the British military. In 1936, he asked to be posted to Palestine as discontent with British colonial rule spread. Soon after he arrived, the Arab Revolt (1936-1939) broke out. British forces had a minimal presence in Jerusalem at the outset of the revolt, and Clarke was tasked with organising the military response to the uprising. As British defenses increased in the territory, Clarke went on to serve under Field Marshall John Dill and Major-General Archibald Wavell in Palestine. Wavell would later offer his unwavering support of Clarke's deception strategies in the Middle East during WWII. A selection of the reels and notes as detailed above correspond with Clarke's time spent in Palestine prior to the outbreak of WWII. In addition to becoming one of the most important British intelligence officers posted to the Middle East for the duration of WWII, Clarke also contributed to the creation of three military units: the British Commandos, the Special Air Service and the US Rangers. The Special Air Service (SAS) as conceived by Clarke was initially a fictitious British paratrooper unit, devised in the early 1940s to mislead the Italians into preparing for an airborne assault. David Stirling, founder of the SAS as we know it today, is quoted as saying in 1985, "The name SAS came mainly from the fact I was anxious to get the full co-operation of a very ingenious individual called Dudley Clark[e], who was responsible for running a deception operation in Cairo ... Clark[e] was quite an influential chap and promised to give me all the help he could if I would use the name of his bogus brigade of parachutists, which is the Special Air Service, the SAS." Clarke led a quiet life after his 1947 retirement, and the full extent of his contributions to military deception tactics during WWII were not fully illuminated until the publication of Strategic Deception in the Second World War (Howard, 1990). Field Marshal Harold