1969 Prince Charles at U.C.W
From the collection of
From the collection of
Well-wishers assemble to pat-a-prince as Charles enters and exits the Old College during his pre-Investiture studies at UCW Aberystwyth.
A 'Groundhog Day' scenario at Aberystwyth's university as Prince Charles, studying Welsh and Welsh History for a term before his Investiture as Prince of Wales on 1/7/1969, is seen repeatedly entering or exit-ing his sports car and the Old College by the sea. The film-maker, David James Sinnet Jones [Jim Jones], was the university's Wages Officer, with an office above the main entrance to the Old College and therefore well placed for capturing royal footage.
Also seen on film are the prince's bodyguards - Mr Speed supplied by the Metropolitan police and Mr Haydn Davies of the Dyfed/Powys Police. Dr Edward [Ted] Lewis Ellis, Warden of Pantycelyn (where Prince Charles stayed) greets the prince briefly on the street just to the left of the main entrance. Professor Ivor Gowan, Head of Political Science, follows the prince out of the History Dept building (then in Laura Place). There are also shots of the Finance office and staff, including Stanley Jarman (Chief Cashier) and Eryl Owen (Payments), the latter seen eating an apple. June Evans (Secretary, Extra-Mural Dept) is seen leaving the Old College at the start of the film.
Home movies are always acutely personal - in subject and perspective - and most were never intended for audiences beyond family and close friends. But even so, these private films share generously with the uninitiated stranger. Watching home movies transports us into other lives and other times, where the actions of people we never knew, in places we've never visited, resonate with our own memories. The home movies of the stars, the rich and the famous, the royals - see past the familiar faces and they're much like anyone's: intimate film portraits of loved people and places, colourful moving picture albums of experience and emotion. These simple point-and-shoot home movies seem to connect with the past in a profoundly authentic way - their images unfiltered by filmmaking technique and artifice.