Damien Peter Parer (1912 - 1944)

Biography

Damien Parer is Notable.

Damien Peter Parer was born at Malvern, Victoria in 1912, the youngest of seven boys and a girl of John Arthur Parer, an hotelkeeper from Spain, and his Victorian-born wife Teresa Carolin who was of Irish blood. He was schooled at Portland and Bathurst in New South Wales before the family moved to Victoria in 1929 and he attended St Kevins Christian Brothers' College at Toorak. Damien Parer was a devoted Roman Catholic and did have intentions of becoming a priest.

He was interested in photography from a young age and he met Charles Chauvel, the film producer in 1934, when Chauvel was making pictures at studios at St Kilda. This gave his fledgling career impetus, and through Chauvel he was appointed assistant cameraman by National Studios in the making of 'Rangler River' and the 'Flying Doctors'. He later worked in Sydney with some of Australia's most prominant photographers, including Max Dupain.

When war broke out in 1939 Damien Parer joined the Department of Information in Melbourne, and because of an accident to another cameraman, he was posted as official photographer with the 6th Division in January, 1940. In that year he joined the first contingent of the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) to sail overseas in World War II.

AIF Rising Sun hat badge

He was in Libya, Syria, Greece, Crete, and Egypt with the Australians. He filmed the naval bombardment of Bardia. Later he went into Tobruk during the siege, and in one week filmed three Stuka attacks. Returning to Australia, he then went to New Guinea, filming his famous "Kokoda Trail" film which won him the Acadamy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1943.

In filming jungle warfare and naval actions in the Pacific he took hair-raising risks, and is said to have completed the equivalent of three operational "tours" in RAAF and US planes.

In June, 1943, he resigned from the Department of Information following a disagreement on living allowance and joined the American newsreel organisation of Paramount Films, for whom he was accredited to the US Navy in the Pacific.

Parer married Elizabeth Marie Cotter at North Sydney in March 1944.

Damien Parer the ace Australian news reel cameraman was killed by Japanese machinegun fire while filming an American combat advance at Peleliu, in the Palau group of islands north of New Guinea on 17 September 1944. He was 33 years of age. ^[1]

His wife survived him, with their son Damien Parer born the following year. Damien Parer was mentioned in despatches for his work at Peleliu.

Sources

1. ↑ 1944 'DAMIEN PARER KILLED', Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld. : 1909 - 1954), 25 September, p. 1. (DAILY), viewed 15 Jun 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115485284

• adb.anu.edu.au [1]
• awm.gov.au [2]
• Wikipedia [3]
• The Argus (Melbourne) 25 September 1944

See also: