ACME operated from 1923 to 1951, under the auspices of Newspaper Enterprise Association. Earlier it was known as United Newspictures. It was bought out by United Press in December 1951. Corbis has some of the images in its collection, while some are held by the New York Public Library.
Part of the Thames Cup winning crew of 1893. Also an English rugby union forward who played club rugby for Blackheath and international rugby for England. In 1890 Allport became one of the original members of the Barbarians Football Club. He also represented Surrey at County level.
He was born in Brixton, 1867, the third son of Franklin Thomas Allport and educated at London International College, Isleworth and Guy’s Hospital.
He was a doctor, attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War, and later Honorary Consulting Surgeon to St Paul’s Hospital for Skin and Genito-urinary Diseases.
He was twice married: first to Edith Blanche Eicke, daughter of R. H. Fry (one son and two daughters); then to Madeline Annie, daughter of Charles Price (one son and two daughters).
He was a member of Argonauts Lodge.
Born in Cheam, Surrey. He was educated at Haileybury and matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1929, where he read Engineering. His father worked in insurance, but was killed at Ypres in 1917.
Askwith joined Peterhouse Boat Club (PBC) in the Michaelmas term of 1929, and was Treasurer in 1930–31, and Captain the following year and part of the next. He was Secretary of the Cambridge University Boat Club in 1933. Askwith was a prolific oarsman, and in the Michaelmas term of 1931 became the first PBC oarsman since Lord Kelvin to win the Colquhoun sculls. In the Lent term of 1932 he rowed at 3 in the winning Blue boat in the University Boat Race. This crew won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta rowing as Leander Club, and was subsequently chosen to represent Great Britain at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In 1933, Askwith again represented the winning Cambridge crew in the Boat Race, later that year winning the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta by two lengths from H L Warren of Trinity Hall, choosing to race under Peterhouse colours over those of Leander Club. After this victory, The Observer remarked that Tom would surely be a 'Pothouse Immortal'. Askwith was again selected to represent Great Britain at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing fourth in the VIII again.
After going down from Cambridge, Askwith worked briefly for Whitbread in London, before entering the British Colonial Service in 1935. Posted to Kenya in 1936, he was District Commissioner for Isiolo, and then Machakos.
From 1945 Askwith became the Municipal African Affairs Officer in Nairobi. Four years later, Tom was appointed Commissioner of Community Development and Principal of Jeanes School, Kabete – a training institution for African colonial development officers.
With his keen sporting background, Askwith chaired the Kenya Sports Association and was involved in promoting Kenyan participation in the Commonwealth and Olympic games.
Askwith was appointed to organise the rehabilitation of those imprisoned during the 1952 Mau Mau uprising, but was later relieved of his duties when he suggested that the Kenyan government should be more humane, and rely less upon force and harsh conditions to impose order in the camps. His stance was vindicated after the 1959 inquiry into the deaths of 11 detainees, who were beaten to death at Hola Camp.
Askwith finished his career as Permanent Secretary to Beniah Ohanga, the first African incumbent at the Ministry of African Affairs, retiring in 1961. Tom spent the next year working as a community development officer in Afghanistan, and worked in a similar role for the British government in Turkey from 1964 until 1966.
Askwith recorded his memoirs in three volumes, From Mau Mau to Harambee (1995), Getting My Knees Brown (1996) and Eyeball to Eyeball (1998).
He married Patricia Noad (died 1999) in 1939; they had two sons and a daughter.
Reggie Bare showed exception skills as an oarsman at Westminster School, and soon established himself at stroke at TRC. He was part of a young group coached by Steve Fairbairn that won the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley in 1920 and picked up 41 wins in 1922 and 1923. One of these was the 1923 Grand Challenge Cup at Henley. It was Thames’ first Grand win of the 20th century, and came after Bare and fellow crew members suffered disappointment after losing to Leander in the final the previous year. The Thames eight represented Great Britain at the 1924 Paris Olympics and, despite setting an Olympic best time in their first round heat, missed out on a medal after finishing fourth, just half-a-length behind bronze medallists Italy. Bare was also a single sculler and canoeist on the Thames.
Loughborough BC
Won Doggetts Coat and Badge in 1925, 'World Sculling' title in 1927, (and possibly 1928).
Great Britain 1928 Olympic coxed four
Great Britain 1928 Olympic coxless four