Ernest Gustav Brandon-Cremer
He was a key figure in Australian aviation history, and was especially known for his documentation of Lasseter's Gold Reef as well as his photography of the Solar eclipse of 21 September 1922 at Wallal, Australia.
Brandon-Cremer claims that he was taken in by a travelling American minister working in Hong Kong before he ended up in the US and finally in Hollywood.
Newspaper notices and advertisements show that Brandon-Cremer worked as a cinematographer with A. C. Tinsdale starting in 1915,[9] a relationship that would last many years, and would benefit him greatly.
In August 1921, Brandon-Cremer travelled to Spain to join the Spanish Legion fighting the Moors (Rif) in North Africa, and participated in 11 battles.
He was repatriated to the UK in November, giving interviews to the British press, representing himself as the only Australian (New Zealander) to join the Spanish Legion.
[17] Wallal, Western Australia was the chosen location for a visiting US Lick Observatory party of Astronomers, led by W. W. Campbell, to view the upcoming Solar eclipse of 21 September 1922.
The purpose of the expedition to view stellar transits of the Sun's disk during the eclipse to measure and verify Albert Einstein's Theory of relativity.
Wallal was preferred for its isolation from man-made light sources, its propensity for clear skies and its location to gain the longest eclipse duration.
A very young Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was the pilot of the Western Australian Airways Bristol Type 28 Coupe Tourers plane (G-AUDF) that made bi-weekly mail drops to the Astronomers during the expedition.
He was instrumental in covering the arrival of the Southern Cross on its journey on the first Trans-Pacific flight to Australia in 1928, piloted by his friend Charles Kingsford Smith.
[23] Another newspaper article mentions his participation on filming the departure of the aeroplane 'Canberra' (de Havilland Giant Moth), an aerial expedition sent out to find the missing 'Southern Cross', piloted by Kingsford-Smith, on its attempted trip from Sydney to London.
Members of the Sydney Stock Exchange organised the 'Central Australian Gold Exploration' Company (CAGE) to venture outback and rediscover this find.
The party left Alice Springs on Camel back en route to Uluru and the Western Ranges.
A few hundred kilometres west of Uluru they discovered a tree with inscriptions and directions, left by Lasseter, to a river and cave.
[34] Prior to the CAGE-II Expedition as it was called, 'Bud' was credited in the Sydney Sunday Guardian, in August 1931 – "Mr. Ernest Brandon-Cremer is the photographer.
