Richard Aubrey and Dicky


This is a story about a film writer and director from North Wales and a film that never was.

Richard Harold Aubrey was born at Rhosllanerchrugog, near Wrexham, in 1918. His father was a collier and his mother ran a sweet shop on Stryt Issa. Richard was a painter and decorator by trade. In 1939 he joined the Army Reserve. He was with 1 Command Signals at Weybridge when, in January 1941, he was wounded by shrapnel during an air raid. He sustained a head injury which left him suffering from intermittent bouts of nervous disorder. He would suffer periods of depression as a result of this injury and was in receipt of a War Disability Pension.

After the war Aubrey travelled to South Africa and toured as an actor in a play called “Battery Mess” in May 1948. Later that year he appeared as Taffy, a flight engineer, in the film “The Mystery of the Snakeskin Belt”, a children’s film made by Gaumont-British Africa and the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. He arrived back in Southampton in June 1949 as a stowaway on the R.M.M.V. Capetown Castle, listing his London address as a hotel in Muswell Hill.

Aubrey met and formed a relationship with a young teacher from South Africa, Elizabeth Keet, described as intelligent but bohemian. Their daughter was born in December 1950 and, although Keet liked Aubrey, she felt she couldn’t marry him. Their daughter was given up for adoption. Aubry was able to change Elizabeth’s mind and they married in October 1950.

Aubrey’s experience on the Snakeskin Belt had inspired him so they moved to Rhosllanerchrugog where he planned to make a film. “Dicky” was to be a comedy of village life centred on the visit of a dignitary and everything that could go wrong. The film was largely financed by his wife’s money but the production was dogged by bad weather in 1953 and 1954 and a great deal of money was wasted. Aubrey worked occasionally as a stunt man to make extra money but broke his leg twice. The film used a lot of locals as actors and lots of the children as boy scouts. During the filming Aubrey became attached to a young, local actress called Joy Owen. His wife had had enough and sailed for South Africa in 1955. On June 8 1957 over 40,000 feet of negative film was stolen from the van transporting it to London.

 In February 1960 Elizabeth sued for divorce on grounds of Aubrey’s adultery. Several months later Aubrey successfully challenged his underwriter’s refusal to compensate for the loss of the film and won over £15,000. Aubrey married Joy Owen in August 1961 and they moved to Hamm Court, by the river in Weybridge.

 n the mid 1960s Aubrey visited South Africa again, supposedly to write a film script, and became embroiled in business dealings with notorious London gangster Charlie Richardson. Aubrey tried to broker a mineral land deal between Richardson and a South African called Waldeck. A journalist called Lionel Atwell was investigating the possibility that Richardson had brought large amounts of Great Train Robbery cash into the country to launder in such deals. On a terrifying occasion, Atwell recounts how he was set upon by Richardson’s men in a flat and that Aubrey had stood over him with a cut-throat razor inches from his face. In the spring of 1965, Richardson had tired of Aubrey and his wheeling and dealing but it all came to a head when Waldeck was shot dead on June 29 1965. Aubrey had borrowed a gun from an acquaintance, Gordon Winter, the night before and was interrogated by the police for several days. In the end the blame was laid on another of Richardson’s men and Aubrey left South Africa.

 In the late 1960’s and 1970s Aubrey worked as a film writer. Among his successful ventures were The One Eyed Soldiers (1967) starring Dale Robertson, A Town Called Bastard (1971) starring Telly Savalas and Robert Shaw and The Amazons (1973) directed by Terence Young, who directed several of the James Bond films.

 Aubrey and his wife moved to Bryn Gwyn Hall at Dwyran, Anglesey but divorced in 1971, with Aubrey living at Minera, Wrexham. During the 1970s his depression and ill health were getting the better of him. He suffered from severe arthritis, necessitating five major operations on his right hip. In 1974 he survived a suicide attempt but threatened to do so again on several occasions. In the late 1970s he was becoming more and more reliant on help with every-day things and his depression was worsening. On December 23 1980, while spending Christmas with his family at the Hall he again took a large overdose of Barbiturates washed down with vodka. He died that evening.

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Aubrey

Snakeskin Belt Cast Photo
Aubrey centre
"PARO PEI Acc5027/s2/5/P-1 (detail)" 

 

Dicky filming

Filming Dicky 1954
[L to R] Cyril Davies, Aubrey, Elizabeth Aubrey,
Jairus Jones, Twm Burke
[Photo courtesy of Wrexham Leader] 

Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey at Minera, Wrexham 1971
[Photo courtesy of Wrexham Leader]