George Greenwell was an exceptionally brave photographer, as demonstrated by this picture - taken from the roof of St Pauls Cathedral on the night of the second Great Fire of London - 29th December 1940

George Greenwell (pictured left) joined the Daily Mirror straight from school in 1923. In his 50-year career with the newspaper he made his name in several spheres from photographing royalty to ground-breaking surgical procedures and going on to become Picture Editor of the paper up to his retirement.

During the Second World War he served his country by volunteering for the London Fire Service but never went out fighting fires without taking his camera with him. This placed him in a unique position to create a pictorial record of the nation’s capital at war. Besides from the obvious dangers of the fires, falling masonry and the like, Greenwell once had to fight off accusations that he was a spy when two policemen took exception to him photographing the rescue of an injured girl from a bombed out building. When he was taken into protective custody both his fire station chief and his editor told the police, presumably tongue-in-cheek, to keep him there overnight for his own safety. Certainly, he seems to have given no thought to his own person in his desire to capture the perfect image as indicated by his dramatic account of the Second Great Fire of London on 29 December 1940:

"As I approached Fleet Street from Fire Service Headquarters in Lambeth, fires were raging everywhere. St Bride's, Fleet Street, was a mass of flames. I halted to take two or three shots of the last of this Wren masterpiece and nearly lost my life. Falling masonry just missed me.

I went on to St Paul's Cathedral to find it at the centre of a fantastic fire-lit fairyland. Incendiaries were bouncing off window ledges, rooftops, in fact even off our appliances, but, alas, too many had found a more valuable target. Ave Maria Lane was blazing furiously from end to end. St Paul's churchyard was fast becoming an immense conflagration. As I climbed the 300 odd steps to the dome of St Paul's I grinned to myself as I thought of the many bewhiskered professors who, after endless calculations, had decided the St Paul's would fall to the ground after another thousand or so No 11 buses had passed the building or something like that.

The whole of the Cathedral shivered and swayed as another H.E. fell close. The stench of explosive and smoke got into one's nostrils. But as I paused for a much-needed rest I saw through a slit window a most amazing spectacle. All below me was a swaying mass of fire, and the fire officer with me said ' We are certain to go to heaven if cooked on the dome of Paul's '.

We were welcomed on to the balcony, which surrounds the dome with yet another H.E., which had the peculiar effect of appearing to have temporally blown away the great volume of smoke, and there as through a hole in the clouds, was London burning.

It was incredible, yet bewilderingly fascinating.

I could see big fires and smaller fires, and even tiny arch like glares and splutters as more incendiaries rained down upon us. The St Paul's Fire Watchers were playing a noble part, clambering like monkeys over the roofs and parapets slinging over or covering with sand incendiary bombs, which settled in 'soft spots'. At one moment the heat was intense. Then it became quite cool."

St Paul’s survived the conflagration as did George Greenwell and his epic photographs record that famous night. He was the only photographer to take photos from inside the dome of St Paul’s while all around him London burned. He eventually retired from the Daily Mirror in 1973.

With thanks to Osprey Publishing for the above biography. Text is taken from The Blitz: An Illustrated History (Osprey Publishing, 2010) © Gavin Mortimer

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To see a selection of George Greenwell's images, click here...