Frank Rust was born in Whitechapel, East London and joined the Daily Mail aged 14 in 1918. He worked on the Mail, the Sunday Dispatch and the Weekend Mail magazine until his retirement in 1968.

He was an innovator, helping to develop the “Wonder Rapid Sequence Camera” which took 20 photos a second, and inventing a quick developing process which was used in the Daily Mail ”photo car” – a converted van which housed a darkroom.

Frank was churchwarden of St Paul’s Dock Street in Poplar, East London which no doubt led him to take the photo of Rev. Joe Williamson praying in Sander Street at the site of a house used by prostitutes.

He was a staff photographer which meant he took photos of anything the paper required but he particularly seemed to have a talent for documentary style pictures as shown in his striking images of the Smithfield fire of 1958.

Frank Rust died in 1991.