From Ken Somerville

My first meeting with Ken Cameron was as a seventeen year old trying desperately to get in to the Film Industry. I was ushered into his office to behold this rather formidable gentleman wearing the kilt and surrounded by a cloud of smoke from his pipe; a sight all those who knew Ken will remember. He was one of the last Heads of Sound from an era that faded-in around the late thirties and faded-out somewhere during the mid seventies.

Ken was educated at Glasgow Academy and Glasgow University where he studied Electrical Engineering on the advice of two of his neighbours in Helensburgh, John Baird - pioneer of television, and Sir John Reith - boss of the BBC. It was after becoming a member of the University Film Society and meeting leading figures from the British Documentary movement including another Glasgow man the legendary John Grierson that the film bug really began to bite. By persuading John Grierson to take him on as a trainee in the GPO Film Unit at Blackheath and the University to accept such training as part of his degree course, all was in place for a career in the Film Industry.

This began in 1938 with the GPO Film Unit. War was in the offing and in August 1939 it was decided to make a film with the utmost speed. If It Should Come; a modest affair, instructed the British Public how to dig trenches and put on gas masks. The prints were ready for distribution by Sunday September 3rd but unfortunately by 11 .00am war came and the film went back to Blackheath for re- shoots and re-recording. It was now to be called Do It Now!

 In 1940 the GPO Film Unit was re-vamped, with Sidney Bernstein in overall charge, and later renamed the Crown Film Unit. One of the first films produced was London Can Take It, incorporating a sound track of the London Blitzkrieg recorded at Blackheath Studios with Ken in the basement and the microphone on the roof It was one of the first recordings of the Blitz. Other famous films followed; Target for Tonight, Coastal Command and Listen to Britain, a cameo of Britain at war told entirely in sound. With the war over, the CFU was rehoused at Beaconsfield Film Studios in 1946. Ken was charged with rebuilding the Sound Department. During the war, the building designated for it had been used as canteen and a fire had made the inside a shambles. A new Sound Department was built from scratch thus becoming one of the most up to date in the country. 

Ken received the OBE in 1950. As he put it, “I can only assume that the Powers-that-Be had decided that a member of the Crown Film Unit should receive this honour and that some blindfolded person had stuck a pin in my name”

In 1951 it was decided that Crown would be disbanded as an economy measure. With no other experience than in film, Ken created, with three other ex-Crown employees, Richard Warren, Ralph May and Ken Scrivener, Anvil Films. 

Anvil was five years old when 1 climbed the narrow staircase to that smoky office in what was known as ‘Cameron’s Castle’.

Life was definitely different then. The Mixer was God and woe betide the Editor who presented untidy track sheets. They were flung across the studio and the unfortunate sound editor told to re-present them, preferably much improved. Juniors like myself were not allowed to wear ties tucked in behind a belt - they were unceremoniously flicked out; not allowed to lean against the wall, “Stand up straight” and had to do homework as set by Ken and then have it marked! We became expert at washing his sports car, a Sunbeam Talbot I seem to remember. 

There was, of course, another side. In Summer, shorts were mandatory and a lull in work at the studio meant a trip to Burnham Beeches Swimming Pool for the whole department. This was the period of the Hammer House of Horror and the beginning of ITV; which of course was a big boost to the company.

Ken’s great love was music but recording with more than one microphone was scorned - one placed the orchestra around the microphone. By the fifties, however it had crept up to six or so but, to quote Ken again, “there was certainly none of the nonsense of splitting the orchestra on to three tracks so that the balance could be corrected later”.

The Beaconsfield era ended with the lease. Denham was the next home for Anvil. The lease was taken over from Pinewood Studios who only used the stage about once a month. It was time for another large investment but for Ken it was the end of recording. Ken Scrivener was now Anvil’s Dubbing Mixer and Eric Tomlinson the Music Mixer. Ken complained that all he was allowed to do was sweep the floor and sign cheques but his enormous reputation in the industry ensured a whole stream of prestigious pictures coming to Denham for music recording, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Superman, and Star Wars, to name but a few. 

Ken retired in 1975 and married Bessie. This year would have been their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. He never lost interest in the company he called his baby. He could be testy but he was also very kind and a vastly knowledgeable man who disliked waste and pomposity. Those of us who had the privilege of working for him will remember him with fondness always.