| AdminHistory | Keith Medley was a commercial and press photographer who worked in and around Merseyside for most of his career. Born in South Africa in 1915, Keith Medley attended school in the United Kingdom and then spent a period in the merchant navy before taking a photographic apprenticeship in Liverpool at Dorondo Mills, Lime Street. While working at Dorondo Mills, Medley photographed the opening of the Queensway Mersey Tunnel by King George V on 18 July 1934, from the vantage point atop St George’s Hall.
Medley then moved to London to work for an advertising agency to cover Lever products, photographing cakes and other food cooked in local kitchens, as well as other product advertisements such as Lifebuoy soap. Subsequently, a chance meeting with Howard Coster - the celebrated society portrait photographer - led him to gain work as Coster's Studio Assistant, meeting other notable people such as A A Milne and his son Christopher Robin, Leon Goosens, Aldous Huxley, and other well-known writers. Keith Medley's portrait of Howard Coster is in the National Portrait Gallery collections.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Medley returned to Liverpool to marry Eileen Deakin at Crosby Registry Office. Soon afterwards he was called up and posted to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment in Helensburgh, Scotland, where he met his later business partner Bob Bird, and filmed the first Bouncing Bomb experiments in Sunderland Flying Boats. He later photographed parachute drops of jeeps, guns, commando troops, Polish, French, and British troops, and drops of supplies for the Maquis.
In 1949 Keith Medley had returned to Merseyside, and set up a photographic business with his business partner Bob Bird. The work included studio portraits, weddings, local events, and press work for local and national newspapers.
By 1960, Medley was also working for Movietone News as cameraman for the North West. Movietone produced newsreels for distribution to cinemas. Notable events at which Keith filmed include at Coniston, when Donald Campbell tragically lost his life when his craft Bluebird crashed while attempting the water speed record, the Investiture of Prince Charles at Caemarvon, and the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in London.
In 1964, Medley became sole owner of the business, having bought out his partner Bob Bird. He also set up a further business, Cameracraft. The work included much press photography, in particular for the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, the local newspaper Wallasey News, and a Liverpool shipping newspaper Journal of Commerce.
Work in the King Street studio included portraiture, photographs for mail order catalogues, and passports. Commercial work included progress pictures of the construction of the Kingsway Mersey Tunnel, from the start of construction through to the opening in June 1971.
In 1984, his studio moved from King Street to Liscard, where he took part in the Charming Child competition for Wallasey News, photographing many of the children of the town. Medley continued working until his retirement in 1987, leaving the studio to settle down to a quieter life of reading, crosswords, and attempting to befriend the superior cat which had adopted him. He sadly died in 2004, aged 89. |
| CustodialHistory | Generously donated to LJMU Special Collections & Archives by Jon Medley in 2009. |