Alfred John West F.R.G.S. (1857–1937) was a British award-winning marine photographer in the Gosport firm of G. West and Son from 1881 (for an early reference see Exhibition Catalogue of the Photographic Society of Great Britain) and from 1897 at the age of 40, a pioneer cinematographer. He was then active in both roles until 1913 when he sold his copyright in negative plates of yachting studies to Beken of Cowes, and his stock of positive moving film in 1916 to a distributor, James Joseph Bennell, proprietor of: B. B. Film Hiring Service, 81, Dunlop Street, in Glasgow (see 'The Bioscope' - Thursday 7 September 1916 p 944 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/the-bioscope) On the closure of the business, the film stock was then sold onwards to the 'Argosy Film Co. Ltd' in 1917 a company also registered at 81 Dunlop Street on 2 August 1917 (See 'The Bioscope' - Thursday 20 September 1917 page 6) which was in film business through the 1920s but was liquidated in 1930, the business passing to 'Audible Filmcraft' which was itself wound up in 1931. It is believed that the positive film stock was transferred from West to B.B. Hiring without completing the purchase.
West confirms in his unpublished autobiography Sea Salts and Celluloid (1936) that he sold the film hire business to a Glasgow distributor to be paid for over several years but that he "kept the negatives". However he was never paid and the bulk of the film stock cannot now be traced. A few tantalising clips remain as does a full descriptive catalogue in the British Library of all the moving film he created under the 'Our Navy' brand. Some potential clips have been located in the British Film Institute's online collection and those found so far are listed on the Our Navy website. The stock of A. J. West's negative plates was sold to Beken of Cowes in 1913 and is now (2020) being prepared for sale as a complete archive of yachting prints by the Brett Gallery Midhurst Hampshire. West's plates are said to be numbered from 500 to 10250 in the Beken/Brett archive. Alfred West died in 1937 and is buried at Highland Road Cemetery Portsmouth in Hampshire (E Plot, Row 19, Grave 14). An extensive collection of newspaper references relating to West's work has been created from 2020 to date (latest edit is shown in the document).