Photographing the Queen: the 1963 Royal visit (Part 2)

Amateur photographers wait for the Queen to arrive, Waitangi, 6 February 1963,
Still from movie footage by British Pathé, “New Zealand Greets Queen,” on YouTube

Part 1 of this article looked at press photography during the Royal Visit to Tauranga on 9 February 1963. Some of their output may be found online in archives such as Tauranga Library’s Pae Korokī or, in the case of cine footage, on YouTube. Any stills or clips which include crowd scenes, however, show an enormous number of cameras in the hands of amateurs, many of whom have jostled their way to the front row or found an elevated point to capture the Queen and the Duke as they went past.

The Queen and Mayor David Mitchell at Memorial Park, 9 February 1963
Bay of Plenty Times, clip from 120-format film negative
Tauranga City Libraries, Gifford-Cross Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-4687

The scene above captured by a Bay of Plenty Times staff photographer includes several onlookers with cameras at the ready: a young boy with a Kodak Starlet at far left, a man with a range finder, another man (in white hat) holding a box camera at waist level, an older man with a cine camera and, at far right, another man operating a cine camera. This was most likely Norman Blackie, whose footage of the day was donated to Tauranga City Library and subsequently deposited with Nga Taonga Sound & Vision.

The Queen and Mayor David Mitchell at Memorial Park, 9 February 1963
Still from 16mm movie footage by Norman Blackie, “Coloured Fountain & Royal Visit – 1963”
Collection of Nga Taonga Sound and Vision
Digitised for Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī

The footage has recently been digitised and will be made available in due course on Pae Korokī.

The Queen arriving at Ocean Beach, Mt Maunganui, 9 Feb 1963
Bay of Plenty Times, clip from 35mm format film negative
Tauranga City Libraries, Gifford-Cross Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gcc-1606

Among the onlookers here welcoming the Queen and Prince Philip to Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui, at least nine in this view are wielding cameras.

Kodak advertisement, The Press (Christchurch), 2 Dec 1963 (Papers Past)

Since the previous Royal Visit nine years earlier, photography had become an almost ubiquitous presence in society. Not only were all the major newspapers sending photographers far and wide to fill each issue with images, but almost every household would have owned multiple cameras. Several Tauranga chemists, such as L.E. Woods, David Jones and B.F. Martin, as well as more specialist shops like Rendell’s and Carter’s Photo Service, would have stocked and processed film, as well as selling cameras such as those advertised by Kodak New Zealand.

Kodak Camera Parade product display, Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, c. 1963
Museums Victoria Collections, Ref. MM 107147

By 1963 the available models ranged from the Brownie 127 at the lower end (for £1-15-9) to the Retina Automatic I (£53-11-6) – equivalent to a range from roughly NZ$61 to $1845 in today’s money. The Brownie Flash II, of which there were several examples included in the above product display, was the latest in a long line of successors to the original Brownie produced in 1900, and cost £2-19-6.

Kodak camera models available in 1963, from L to R, (back row) Brownie Flash II, Retinette IB, Brownie Starflash, Brownie Starlet, (front row) Brownie 127, Retinette IA, Retina Automatic I
Collection of Brett Payne

Judging by the number of these cameras that turn up for sale on TradeMe, some still with a film inside, they were valued possessions. Although by this time the Starlet and 127 were predominantly made from plastic and marketed primarily for use by children, the top end Retina models were high spec pieces of equipment originally designed to compete with rangefinders such as the Leica and Contax.

Sightseers in Waikorire (Pilot Bay), Mount Maunganui, 9 February 1963
Colour positive transparency by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/594

The colour slide view above, showing Waikorire (Pilot Bay) crowded with sightseers and the Queen’s motor launch in the foreground, off Salisbury Wharf, was one of several taken that day by local resident Robert Gale, a teacher and member of the Tauranga Photographic Society. It is among more than 2000 slides deposited by his family and Alf Rendell with the Tauranga Heritage Collection.

The Queen and the Duke depart from Salisbury Wharf, Mount Maunganui, 9 February 1963
Colour positive transparency by unidentified photographer
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī, Ref. 04-305

In another colour slide, this one taken by an unidentified photographer, probably within minutes of the previous shot, and held by Tauranga City Libraries, well-wishers farewell the Royals as they head down Salisbury Wharf to the waiting motor launch.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Australia, 18-19 February 1963
Black-and-white positive transparency by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/131

Tauranga residents continued to follow the progress of the Royal Tour after they had left Tauranga. Robert Gale took this photograph of the television reportage on 20 February 1963, presumably on their arrival in Canberra (18^th) or Adelaide (19^th). There must be many more such images out there in the community. A short home movie clip from Archives New Zealand shared on Facebook a couple of years ago (watch here) brought several responses from people who remembered the day well.

It is my feeling that Tauranga’s 1963 Royal Visit may have been our most photographed event to date – perhaps not on the scale of the multitude of cell phone images taken nowadays, but a huge record for the time. Many of those snapshots and home movies have inevitably been discarded over the last six decades during attic clear-outs, moves and rationalisations, but there must still be some around. If you have any taken on that day, either by yourself or other family members, and are happy to share them, it would be nice to hear from you. Please email me at gluepot@gmail.com.

References

Royal Visit 1963 Itinerary, P.M. No. 60/1962, Transcripts from the Prime Ministers of Australia, URL: https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-586