Harry

I have been given a digital transfer of a short film taken in 1928 on board the Duchess of Bedford.  According to your site, she sailed to Canada on June 1, 1928, and from Montreal and Quebec the same month on her first return voyage to the U.K.  The film was likely taken on her return trip.  The film was labeled September, however.  If that's accurate, which I have some reason to doubt, it would have been the September 7th departure.

The adults pictured are, among others, Dr. Donald Thomas Fraser, a research fellow at the Connaught Labs, his wife Mary (Shenstone) Fraser, and Donald and Nancy, their two children.  Don is 7, his sister 5.  Both children are still alive and well.    Don is now 87, his sister 85, so the film is 80 years old this year.  In fact, this is the Duchess of Bedford's eightieth anniversary.

Dr. Fraser was traveling with famous Canadian physician and Nobel Prize recipient, part of the duo who discovered insulin in 1921, Dr. Charles Best, and his wife Margaret.  Fraser and Best were heading to Garches, outside Paris, to confer with Dr. Gaston Ramon of the Pasteur Institute on work in which they all shared an interest. It was a sabbatical for Dr. Fraser.  Part of my doubt as to the date of the film revolves around the fact that this was a Summer trip for the Fraser family and involved some traveling in Europe.  Everyone here is dressed warmly, however.  Perhaps the date is accurate.

The film is a .dv file.  I can make it available to you if you are interested.  It's gigantic, almost half a Gb, and will take a long time to download.  The Duchess of Bedford features only as a location.  Little of the ship is visible.  I've attached frames as an indication of what's there.

Best wishes

David Fleury
Toronto

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