It’s not every day that a collection of World War II photographs and 8mm film footage is donated to the National Archives of Malta but this week marks such an event – a digital copy of 500 original photos and two and a half hours of 8mm film footage will today be donated to Malta for posterity.
The owner of the material is Stan Fraser, a British WWII veteran who was stationed in Malta between 1941 and 1943.
The donation follows the first public showing of selections of Stan Fraser’s work during Notte Bianca – Lejl Imdawwal. The exhibition was visited by over 2,000 people on 6 October. The WWII collection was digitally compiled for the National Archives with the generous sponsorship of the Farsons Foundation. Project funding covered the costs of collecting the materials from Wales, the cataloguing of photographs and films as well as the digitisation of all materials which was carried out in Germany.
A CD package of the collection was produced by the Munich-based, educational media producer Veronica Galea, on whose initiative the Fraser Collection was brought to Malta. The digital copy of the Fraser Collection includes a brief biography of Stan Fraser, together with useful reference descriptions of the Fraser Collection. Fraser’s amateur photography provides a documentary account of the life of a gunner in the Royal Artillery, while the 8mm films offer a different perspective to the standard British propaganda news reel films of the day, including both live scenes of aerial bombardment and views of civilian life in Malta and Gozo.
The photos and films as well as his recently published wartime journals (The Guns of Hagar Qim, published by Wise Owl), relate the colourful experiences of a British soldier during wartime. Arriving in Grand Harbour in July 1941, at the age of 26, Fraser was a good soldier and a man with leadership qualities. It was his passion for photography however, that almost earned him a court martial and delayed his commission till the end of the war – he was tried for taking photos without authorisation and breaching military censorship rules.
Today Stan’s devotion to his hobby is appreciated. Despite the shortage of film supplies, he recorded some 80 minutes of film, and some 500 photos were taken in Malta and Gozo from July 1941 till he set sail for Alexandria with his regiment in December 1943. In 1944, he filmed his tour of duty in Egypt and Palestine and earlier in 1940 he documented the retreat to Dunkirk of the British Expeditionary Force. In Germany in 1945, he filmed scenes of the Ruhr district in ruins as he escorted prisoners of war back to their home country. The Fraser Collection at the National Archives will present historians and the public with a candid view of the wartime years in Malta and elsewhere.
The endeavour to bring the collection to Malta began two years ago when Veronica Galea met with Stan Fraser at his home in Wales, following her discovery of clips of Fraser’s Malta film footage in a local library. It was only several months after the meeting in Wales, and after many frustrated efforts, in collaboration with Stan Fraser and his assistant and friend Sandy Ellis, that all the original wartime film reels were located.
Acknowledgement of Stan Fraser’s donation to the National Archives has been made at the highest level. Recently, he received a letter of thanks for the donation from Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
Today, Stan Fraser lives in North Wales with his wife Peggy. The Fraser Photo and Film Collection is Stan Fraser’s second donation to Malta. The first took place 15 years ago when he presented four, wartime 3.7 inch heavy anti-aircraft guns to President Censu Tabone, in memory of all who died in Malta during World War II.