My uncle Bill Keightley, who has died aged 101, was a photographer who specialised in taking pictures of aircraft. He spent most of his career at the Short Brothers aerospace company in Belfast, beginning his photography during the second world war. Some of his work, now of historical interest, is displayed at the Ulster Transport Museum.
Bill began his job at a time when safety measures were rudimentary. He hung out of one plane to photograph another, his foot jamming the door open while his hands held the camera. If things got bumpy, someone might grab his shirt.
Commissioned to photograph Northern Ireland for an aerial map, he lost several pairs of spectacles over a period of a few weeks as successive pairs fell out of the open door to the ground below. He loved the work and always said that he was being paid to do his hobby.
The seventh of 10 children, Bill was born near Ballinderry in County Derry. His parents were Annie (nee Orr), a nurse, who died when Bill was five, and Isaac Keightley, a farmer. He grew up in rural poverty. Hunger was never far away. After leaving school at age 14 he moved to Belfast, where, after taking on a variety of jobs, he began working in the wages department at Short Brothers. He acquired a camera, and on one occasion was asked by his employers to photograph a Short Brothers plane that was flying over Belfast Lough. The photograph came out so well that in 1942 he joined the company’s photographic and printing department.
Bill met his future wife, Ella Wright, at a cycling club in the late 1930s. They married in 1950. The club organised cycling trips throughout Ireland. In return for bringing sugar and other goods hard to find in wartime Belfast back over the border, Bill’s boss paid him when these trips took place in work time.
He remained at Shorts for the rest of his career, mainly photographing aircraft in Belfast and also travelling for work. He covered the Farnborough airshow in Hampshire annually, went to Benbecula in the outer Hebrides and once to Egypt.
Later he became deputy head of the photography department.
After retiring from Shorts in 1986, Bill worked locally for McMeekins, doing photography work for exhibition stands. He finally stopped in 1996.
Bill aged well, looking younger than his years. When his youngest sister, Nessa, was in hospital, Bill visited regularly. One day he found her laughing. A doctor had told her he had spoken with her son. That turned out to be Bill, five years her senior.
Aged 100 Bill commented to his son Alec that he had never ridden in an open-top sports car, and so Alec arranged for him to do so. Thrilled by the experience, Bill was only disappointed that Alec did not drive faster.
Ella predeceased him. Bill is survived by his sons, Alec and Gareth, and four grandchildren, Lex, Nadine, Allison and Thomas.
