Gordon Mitchell

Dear Jeff and Geoff, I put 'Amateur Cine World' into Google and found a BFI Forum. Someone had posted a listing from the British Film Institute catalogue of 1969 and scrolling through the list I found an entry for 'One Minute To Go'. It describes the film as a 15 minute look at behind the scenes life of Graham Hill and and his family produced by Vic Blackman - no mention of Peter and no racing. The BFI is still in existence and may still have a copy. I know this is not relevant to your family tree search but thought you may be interested to know that the film did exist. Another film included in the presentation at The Cvic Halls that night told the story of how the plague got to Eyam from London on a bolt of cloth to a tailor lodging in the village and how the Church Minister struggled to contain it. The film impressed me and lived in memory and I have visited the village on a number of occasions. Incidentally I was unable to read the article Geoff attached because the file was too small but was able to recognise the photo of Peter although he was a little older than when I knew him. No mention of the engineering works in Peckham has been made. I remember Peter saying that they made wrought iron fire escapes and spiral staircases. Regards Gordon Mitchell

Dear Jeff, It is now almost 50 years since I last saw Peter and I am now in my 80s so my memory of events is somewhat patchy. As I remember it, Vic Blackman was camera man on the film and Peter was in charge of sound. It was an amateur production on, I believe, 8mm film. The competition was run by a popular magazine of the day. I was never interested in cine and only ever worked in slides and prints and so cannot suggest magazine names or the cine club to which they belonged. Vic was, I believe a staff photographer on the Daily Express and had a regular column in Amateur Photographer. Vic wrote a couple of books which are listed on line and secondhand copies are probably available from Amazon. There is an obituary on line: he died in Portsmouth in 2009 aged 92. Amateur Photographer is stil in production and as Vic was a well known and popular journalist they may have some information in their archives. Likewise the Express may produce some leads but after all this time the chanced are rather slim. Perhaps Vic's family have the film and may be contacted through the funeral directors.

I knew Peter Shinkfield. He was part of a group of local businessmen who lunched at the Crown Public House at the corner of Hill Street, Peckham in the 1960s. He lunched in Peckham because he was running the factory that he ran with his sister near to Consort Road. We had a common interest in photography. Me producing slides and prints and he making cine movies. In conjunction with Vic Blackman - a press photographer and journalist - he made a film about Graham Hill, called 'One Minute to Go'. The film was entered in a competition run by a magazine, probably Amateur Cine World, and was selected to be shown nationally along with seven other entries. I saw it at Orpington Civic Halls. I lived in Lewisham at the time but did visit the shop in Lordship Lane one Saturday when Peter was in attendance.I left the company I was working for in the early 70s and lost contact from that time. One thing I do remember well is that Peter did not get on with his sister; I believe that she wanted to sell the business left to them by their father but Peter did not.