Description
St. Paul’s Cathedral is surrounded by ruins after an enemy air raid during World War II. Between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, over 18,000 tonnes of high explosives were dropped on London in 71 air raids. Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent word that St Paul’s Cathedral should be protected at all costs – it would boost morale to save Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. photograph by Frank Rust Northcliffe Collection,1941.
Who Was Frank Rust
Frank Rust worked for Associated Newspapers and Fleet Streets Finest has recently added the work of Frank to our collection.
Frank was born in 1904 in Whitechapel. The streets that history links to the Whitechapel Murders AKA Jack the Ripper murders and home to the Kray twins
Frank joined the Daily Mail and worked for the paper for fifty years. Aged 14 in 1918. He became an apprentice and on completion of his apprenticeship, he worked on the Daily Mail, the Sunday Dispatch, and the Weekend Mail magazine until his retirement in 1968.
Frank was a staff photographer. Staff photographers are expected to be able to produce a picture for all occasions and to illustrate all news stories that are thrown at them by the Picture Editor.
Among Franks wide-ranging photo assignments, we find photos of television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s, early bi-planes in the 1930s and bomb-damaged London during the Blitz.
Frank was also 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.
September 1st, 1939 saw the beginning of operation Pied Piper. 1.5 million people were relocated around the UK and some were sent to other countries including the USA. Evacuations did not stop with Pied Piper and future evacuations led to an estimated 3 million people being relocated.
In his picture taken in 1941 children are seen being evacuated from London to escape German bombers. Mother and the baby of the family say goodbye as her daughter joins schoolmates on a train bound for Yorkshire. Evacuees did not return to London until June 1945 and the scheme officially ended in March of 1946.
Frank’s interests were wider than newspapers and he was involved with a local church. Frank was churchwarden of St Paul’s, Dock Street in Poplar, East London.
In the 1960’s this Church was the base for operations for Father Joe who was known as the ‘prostitutes padre’. He campaigned on behalf of East Enders living in slum conditions, and for prostitutes in the East End of London and among those assisting in this campaign was churchwarden Frank Rust. Frank brought his newspaper skills to the aid of the church to create images that supported and raised awareness of Father Joes campaign.
Frank died in 1991
