Henry Howse

(b. Sunningdale, Berkshire **/**/1870 – d. **/**/1935?). Photographer, Cameraman. Henry Howse was a member of The Salvation Army and held the rank of Captain when he married Lieutenant Elizabeth (Bessie) Charlotte Palmer on 12 December 1892 at Penge, in the London borough of Bromley. At the time he was with the organisation’s publishing department, but by 1897 he had transferred to the section that produced magic lantern slides for use at meetings. In fact, in the 1901 Census he is identified as a photographer and when, in 1903, The Salvation Army established a cinematograph department, he became its first cameraman under Major (later Brigadier) Frederick Cox. Besides shorts depicting William Booth on his journeys throughout Great Britain and even to the Holy Land in 1905, there were segments on a variety of subjects, from London street scenes and a tour of the Zoological Gardens, to activities at a land colony at Hadleigh and an open-air meeting at Whitechapel Road. There were even some fictional shorts, which drew on themes borrowed from popular commercially produced films. At such shows Major Cox was the lecturer and Adjutant Howse the operator. Much of the archival footage used in the documentary William Booth, God’s soldier (1978) by W. Hugh Baddeley was probably shot by Howse.

It is not certain whether his work with The Salvation Army was a full-time job. Apparently Howse claimed to have built his own film camera and filmed Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. He may have been running a framing business in Penge in 1902 and there are also suggestions that he filmed some of Sir Thomas Lipton’s unsuccessful attempts to win the America’s Cup, as well as the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to India in 1905-06. In an article written for Stage & Cinema of 24 February 1917, Howse states that he had “wandered among thirty-five nations”, had been captured by Bedouin robbers, spent time in a Turkish jail and visited both Tibet and China. Strangely, there is no mention of The Salvation Army. However, he also writes that he accompanied Shackleton on board the Nimrod to the North Pole. His son, who was 15 at the time, is said to have accompanied him and as, at the time of writing, the young man was 23 (and serving on the Western Front), this Arctic journey would have taken place round about 1909. The problem being that Shackleton never attempted a journey to the North Pole and in 1908-1909 he was leading an expedition across Antarctica. It is likely that the Stage & Cinema article was actually written by an uncredited journalist, who interpreted Howse’s comments rather liberally and, in doing so, made a number of factual errors. The most probable explanation is that Howse was, in fact, on the Nimrod on its journey south, but returned with the ship after Shackleton’s party had landed. Incidentally, Howse’s name does not appear in the 1911 Census, which could mean that he was indeed out of the country.

In any case, in 1915 he was back in Great Britain and produced at least two shorts for his own company. The Stronger Will and Meg of the Slums, were both released in January of the following year and both starred Helena Millais. Apparently they were not successful enough to keep him in England, for in that same year he joined the newly established African Film Productions in Johannesburg. His first film was Lorimer Johnston’s The Silver Wolf, which he wrote and also photographed. This was followed by Harold M. Shaw’s De Voortrekkers, on which he was one of four cameramen. In 1917 Stage & Cinema reported that he was the Works Manager at AFP and later that year it announced that he was the Producer and Editor of the newsreel African Mirror. However, after Harold Shaw’s feud with I.W. Schlesinger, Howse was one of those who left with him for Cape Town, joining cinematographer Ernest G. Palmer as ”general photographic expert” to shoot Shaw’s The Rose of Rhodesia and Thoroughbreds All, both 1918. When Shaw returned to England, Howse probably left as well.

On 25 November 1919 he arrived in the United States, giving the name of his son, W.H. Howse of Oakfield Street, Penge, London as his nearest relative. He described his occupation as “cinematographist” and stated that he had been in the United States before. He also said that he was “in transit”, which could have meant that he was going to visit his daughter, Mabel Macfarlane, who had moved to Canada. After that we lose track of him until 1925, when he turns up as cameraman for India Today, made by T.H. Baxter, Secretary of the Missionary Film Committee. In 1929 he photographed another Baxter documentary, this time on Palestine.

(Interestingly, in the 1901 Census there is another Henry Howse (Henry Chamberlain Howse), whose occupation is given as photographer and bookbinder. He was born in 1867 in Sharnford, Leicestershire and some researchers have suggested that this was, in fact, the film pioneer. However, by 1911 this Howe's occupation is given as school attendance officer, which seems rather remote from all the activities described above.) (FO)

Sources

Stage & Cinema, 24 February 1917

Rand Daily Mail, 20 April 1918

The Salvationist, 15 May 2004

Bottomore, Stephen - From theatre manager to globetrotting cameraman: the strange career of Charles Rider Noble (1854-1914) (Film History, Vol. 24)

Cox, F. Hayter - He was there!: the story of Brigadier Cox - armour-bearer to William Booth

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm

Rapp, Dean - The British Salvation Army, the early film industry and urban working-class adolescents, 1897-1918 (Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 7, No. 2)

Wiggins, Arch - The history of The Salvation Army, Volume 4 (1886-1904)

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