World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHugh St Clair Stewart was born to clergyman Mervyn James Stewart and Margaret Emma in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom in 1910. He attended Clayesmore School in Dorset and later St John's College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. He entered the film industry in the early 1930s, and largely worked as a film editor. He married Frances Curl in 1934. When the war broke out, he initially enlisted in the Royal Artillery of the British Army, but in Dec 1940 he was transferred to the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU). In late 1942, he was the commanding officer of No. 2 AFPU, attached to Allied units entering Tunisia. In 1943, he edited actual combat film footage into the documentary film "Desert Victory". In early 1944, he co-directed "Tunisian Victory" with Frank Capra and John Houston, which contained much staged footage. In mid-1944, he was made the commanding officer of No. 5 AFPU, with which unit he would follow the Allied advance from Normandie, France to Germany. In Apr 1945, he directly appealed to Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower to overturn his standing British War Office orders to remain with front line British Army units so that he could record on film the horrors of the recently liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany. He and his team arrived at the camp within days, photographing crowded barracks, dead bodies piled high, and other scenes of horror. After the war, he retired from the British Army at the rank of lieutenant colonel. He worked as a film producer, semi-retiring in the late 1960s. He passed away in 2011.

ww2dbaseStewart was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Photographs Taken by Hugh Stewart

Hugh Stewart Timeline