Mr Francis E. Speed (Physics 1948)

Source: The Guardian

Frank Speed, who died aged 87, was a medical photographer who became a pioneering ethnographic film-maker. Some of his many projects recording the arts and cultures of Nigeria have become classics, still widely used in African studies and anthropology courses around the world, and appreciated as much for their aesthetic qualities as for their documentary value.

Between 1936 and 1939 he took courses at Imperial College London and the London School of Cinematography. From 1954 to 1956 he was Director of the Scientific Photography Department at the London University Institute of Cancer Research, where he was instrumental in the development of colour cine-photomicrography.

In 1968 Frank left medical photography for the University of Ife, where he was Senior Fellow in the Institute of African Studies, and later Head of the Educational Technology Department. In 1980 he became Senior Fellow in the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Calabar. Frank retired in 1983 after 27 years in Nigeria, having made more than 28 films. His films won nine international prizes, including silver awards in 1962 and 1964 from the British Medical Association and a prize for Were Ni! He Is a Madman at the 1965 Florence documentary film festival.