Maurice William Broomfield (2 February 1916 – 4 October 2010) was an English

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

whose images of post-war British industry were credited with capturing the optimistic spirit of the time.

Life and work

Born in Draycott,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, England, Broomfield was the son of a lace designer. On leaving school at 15, he worked as a lathe operator on the assembly lines of the engineering company

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. In the evenings he studied at Derby College of Art. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

, working in the

Friends Ambulance Unit The Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in line with their Peace Testimony. The FAU operated from 1914 to 1919, 1939 to 1946 and ...

as an ambulance driver in the London

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

, and after the war for

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

in Germany. Broomfield's archive has been acquired by the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

conducted an oral history interview (C459/194) with Maurice Broomfield in 2007 for its An Oral History of British Photography collection.Broomfield, Maurice (1 of 5) Oral History of British Photography, The British Library Board, 2007
Sounds.bl.uk, Retrieved 1 February 2018

Personal life

Broomfield married twice, firstly to Anita Sonja Lagusova, in 1947, with whom he had two children, Ann, and documentary film-maker

Nick Nick may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nick (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Désirée Nick, German actress and writer Places * Nick, Hungary, a village * Nick, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland, a ...

. Lagusova died in 1982, aged 60, from cancer. In 1987, he married Suzy Thompson-Coon.Jon Lev
Obituary: Maurice Broomfield
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 13 October 2010

References

External links

Personal website, including slideshow of images

in ''The Independent'' by

Marcus Williamson Marcus Williamson is a British writer, journalist, and campaigner. As an obituarist, he has written obituaries of more than 400 subjects, including artists, poets, musicians, actors and inventors for ''The Independent'', ''The Guardian'', ''The S ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broomfield, Maurice 1916 births 2010 deaths Photographers from Derbyshire English photojournalists English conscientious objectors People associated with the Friends' Ambulance Unit Industrial photographers People from the Borough of Erewash