Tributes paid to Dunfermline photographer Morris Allan who 'captured Sputnik'

Among many career highlights, he persuaded his “hero” Bing Crosby to be interviewed, became good friends with Jock Stein and was a Scotsport cameraman covering Dunfermline Athletic’s 1961 Scottish Cup win.

He even called a three-part story about his life ‘Shooting People is Fun’.

But to many couples, Morris was best known for capturing the happiest day of their lives as a wedding photographer in Dunfermline. He passed away peacefully at Alexander House Nursing Home on Wednesday 11th February.

One of his sons, award-winning wildlife cameraman Doug, said, “Dad was a writer, a journalist and a top rate photographer too. He had the ability to click the shutter at just the right moment to catch a person jumping or the expression on their face. He took far too many good photos for it to be just lucky.

“He had a real eye for a photo and often you only get one chance. I photograph animals and they’re much easier as they don’t have expressions!” Born in Dunfermline on 2nd March 1924, Morris Allan was educated at McLean Primary and Queen Anne High schools. He left school at 14 and by 16 he had a job as a cub reporter at the now defunct Dunfermline and West Fife Journal, a local weekly newspaper.

It was there he met his first wife, Betty O’Brien, and the couple went on to have five children – Ron, Doug, Graeme, Judy and April. Morris moved towards press photography but the war intervened and he joined the Airborne in 1942. After the conflict he was in the military government of Malta as secretary to the governor. Back home, Morris decided to go freelance, opening up his own shop, Photocraft, in Chalmers Street in 1951. Some years later, he and Betty converted half of the shop to a hairdressers .

The Allan brothers and sisters remember, “Dad was just so well connected. Jock Stein, the manager of the Pars at the time, would come round to the house and we always remember the wide circle of friends Dad had because of the job he did. It led him to unusual places and gave him privileged access to exciting things that were happening, whether it was football matches or flying in an aeroplane or going down mines. There was a great deal of variety in his life and he liked to be on breaking stories. There was always an element of excitement and the job would take him away a lot. Plans for a Sunday would go to hell if the phone rang!” Doug continued, “He was canny enough and good enough to get work but you need to be a good person too – no-one’s going to hire you if you’re a pain. He did a roaring trade in weddings. His big secret was that, between him and his assistant Ronnie Mills, they would do four or five weddings in one morning and then zoom back to the shop, process the black and white negatives and then run a set of prints. Mum would take the prints to the reception so they would get them the same day and that’s where they made all the big orders. It was a success but the three of them worked so hard at it.” The famous photograph of Sputnik, as it raced through the skies at 18,000mph, was captured at 5.30am on 11th October 1957. Waiting for the shot, Morris spent three nights sat on a hilltop at West Baldridge Farm with his father-in-law George O’Brien and assistant Ronnie.

He described it as his most satisfying job in journalism and later said they were the “only people in the world to shoot man’s first star”.

Sputnik’s launch was a significant event in the space race between the USA and USSR and his photographs appeared in publications around the world – he even received congratulations from Moscow – but only charged the same reproduction fees as he would for a wedding or flower show.

Doug said, “I remember he was surprised by the fuss it caused. He went to a lot of trouble to find out where it was going to be and was clever enough to put something recognisable, the Forth Bridge, in the foreground. It was a huge story around the world and his pictures were quite simply the best.” Morris bought a 16mm movie camera and started to film news events, becoming one of the first cameramen to work on TV’s Scotsport. Ron recalls, “At matches with a small crowd, he’d lean over the gantry and ask the crowd to huddle together to get a shot of them!

“Dunfermline was a big team and I remember Dad covering the Scottish Cup final in 1961. They drew the first game and he got tickets for us twins to be in the stand, close to the filming platform, for the replay which we won 2-0.” Morris also made films for the Fife Educational TV Unit that were shown in schools and featured celebrities he’d come to know like Lulu and Sir Patrick Moore.

Judy said, “Dad was a frustrated singer and Bing Crosby was his hero. Bing was in St Andrews for a golf match and Dad persuaded him to do an interview about his life for a film for the Fife unit! I was still at school at the time, and I ended up doing the interview with dad filming it. He made a lot of things happen!” Morris suffered two debilitating car accidents in the 1970s – the second damaged his hip and meant he walked with the aid of a stick – and the family was rocked when Betty died of cancer in 1983. April said, “Mum’s death left Dad heartbroken, he really did lose his soulmate.” There was further sadness when firm friend Tim Tyler, with whom Morris collaborated on a film about Scottish wildcats, died before the film was finished.

He found love once more in 1988 when he met Patricia McCusker. Their friendship grew; through her he found his spirit and strength again. They married in 1992 and enjoyed going out for meals and trips to the theatre to watch musicals or the Royal Marine Band. The family relished visits to York Place, especially at Christmas.

With Trish’s encouragement, he finished his book, ‘In Search of the Scottish Wildcat’, in tribute to his friend.

Morris Allan’s funeral service will be held today (Thursday) at Dunfermline Crematorium at 2.45pm.