Colin Frederick George WillsWills''

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

(2012), 4 July 2018. (17 January 1906 – 1965) was an Australian journalist, poet, broadcaster, war correspondent, scriptwriter and travel writer. Born in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Wills grew up on the North Shore of Sydney. During the 1920s and 1930s he worked as a reporter for the '' Daily Guardian'', ''

Smith's Weekly ''Smith's Weekly'' was an Australian tabloid newspaper published from 1919 to 1950. It was an independent weekly published in Sydney, but read all over Australia. History The publication took its name from its founder and chief financer Sir ...

'' and the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''. In 1933, he published a collection of poetry with illustrations by the cartoonist " WEP" (William Pidgeon): ''Rhymes of Sydney''. Wills left Australia in 1939, to work as a journalist and broadcaster in Europe. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Wills reported from front-line areas for outlets including the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, ''

Chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

'' and ''

Mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

''. His assignments included the North African campaign and

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

, which Wills covered from a landing craft, as it carried

Canadian soldiers } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

Juno Beach Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gold ...

, in Normandy. He visited

Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

, in north-west Germany, soon after it was liberated by Allied forces. In mid-1945 Wills and

Richard Crossman Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the ...

wrote the script of ''

German Concentration Camps Factual Survey ''German Concentration Camps Factual Survey'' is the official British documentary film on the Nazi concentration camps, based on footage shot by the Allied forces in 1945. The film was produced by Sidney Bernstein, then with the British Minist ...

'', a feature-length documentary about the

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

. The ''de facto'' co-directors of the film were

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

(who was credited as a "treatment advisor") and

Sergei Nolbandov Sergei Nolbandov (1895-1971) was a Russian-born screenwriter, film producer and film director, director. Nolbandov was born in Moscow in 1895. He later moved to Britain where he worked in the British film industry. He died in Lewes, Sussex in 1971.S ...

("production supervisor"). Post-production was halted for political reasons after several months and the film was not completed and released until 2014. Wills later authored three non-fiction books: ''White Traveller in Black Africa'' (1951), ''Who Killed Kenya?'' (1953) and ''Australian Passport'' (1953), all of which were published in London by Dennis Dobson Ltd. ''Australian Passport'' combined autobiography with social commentary regarding Australia. He died at

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, London, in 1965.FamilySearch (2012), "Colin F G Wills", (1965). ''England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007''
(4 September 2014).

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wills, Colin 1906 births Australian travel writers Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Australian reporters and correspondents Journalists from Sydney People from the North Shore, Sydney People from Toowoomba 20th-century Australian poets Australian male poets Australian war correspondents 1965 deaths