Olley Air Services and Geoffrey Keating

Captain Gordon P. Olley seated at his desk

The photograph to the right was taken by Geoffrey Keating, staff photographer for The Daily Sketch, in 1937. The Society's archive include a letter from Keating accompanying the photographs to Captain Gordon P. Olley. They were commissioned to promote Olley's new airline Olley Air Services shortly after it began business. The photographs below give a wonderful view of air travel in the 1930s and, among other things, passengers on a Olley Air Services' plane; a passenger being weighed at check in; Captain J.F.D. Scott reading the weather; a pilot preparing for take off; the Misses Boakes (sisters) cleaning the plane.

Keating was later the only photographer to accompany the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1939 and on his return became the Head of the Army Film and Photographic Unit for the remainder of World War Two. There is more information about him during World war Two on the Imperial War Museum website. He returned to The Daily Sketch after the war finished. We have tried to trace more details about Keating through the Imperial Museum and Associated Press and would be interested to know more about this photographer.