---
name: "Humphrey Jennings"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/humphrey-jennings"
fi1m_id: "humphrey-jennings"
imdb_id: "nm0421165"
tmdb_id: 936343
wikidata_id: "Q352565"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "19 August 1907"
died: "24 September 1950"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-25T03:19:48.541110+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Humphrey Jennings

## Identity

Humphrey Jennings

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/humphrey-jennings
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** humphrey-jennings
- **IMDb ID:** nm0421165
- **TMDB ID:** 936343
- **Wikidata ID:** Q352565
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Jennings, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q352565, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0421165/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/936343

Director. Born 19 August 1907 in Walberswick, United Kingdom. Died 24 September 1950.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 19 August 1907, Walberswick, United Kingdom
- **Died:** 24 September 1950
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Jennings, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q352565, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0421165/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/936343

## Biography

Humphrey Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker. Born Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings on 19 August 1907 in Walberswick, Suffolk, he studied English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and worked as a painter and designer before joining the GPO Film Unit in 1934. He was a co-founder of the Mass Observation social research organisation.

Jennings is best known for his films made during the Second World War for the Crown Film Unit. These include *Listen to Britain* (1942) and *Fires Were Started* (1943), on which he served as both director and writer. His only feature-length film, *Fires Were Started*, depicts the work of the Auxiliary Fire Service in London during the Blitz. He died on 24 September 1950 in Poros, Greece, while scouting locations for a new project.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, screenonline.org.uk.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Fires Were Started* (1943), Fi1m 85, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/fires-were-started.md)

## Complete filmography (38)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Changing Face of Europe* (1951), Director
- *Family Portrait* (1950), Director, Writer
- *The Dim Little Island* (1949), Director, Producer
- *The Cumberland Story* (1948), Director
- *A Defeated People* (1946), Director
- *A Diary for Timothy* (1945), Director
- *Myra Hess* (1945), Director
- *V.1.* (1944), Director
- *The Eighty Days* (1944), Director
- *The True Story of Lili Marlene* (1944), Director, Writer
- *The Silent Village* (1943), Director, Producer
- *Fires Were Started* (1943), Director, Writer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/fires-were-started.md)
- *Listen to Britain* (1942), Director, Writer, Editor
- *The Heart of Britain* (1941), Director
- *Words for Battle* (1941), Director
- *This Is England* (1941), Director
- *London Can Take It!* (1940), Director
- *Spring Offensive* (1940), Director
- *Welfare of the Workers* (1940), Director
- *Cargoes* (1939), Director
- *Spare Time* (1939), Director
- *S.S. Ionian* (1939), Director
- *The First Days* (1939), Director
- *The Farm* (1938), Director
- *English Harvest* (1938), Director
- *Speaking from America* (1938), Director
- *Penny Journey* (1938), Director
- *Making Fashion* (1938), Director
- *Farewell Topsails* (1937), Director
- *The Birth of the Robot* (1936), Color Designer
- *David Low Animation* (1936), Producer
- *BBC: The Voice of Britain* (1935), Actor
- *Coal Face* (1935), Additional Photography
- *The Glorious Sixth of June* (1934), as Albert Goodbody
- *Pett and Pott: A Fairy Story of the Suburbs* (1934), as Grocer (uncredited)
- *Post-Haste* (1934), Director
- *Locomotives* (1934), Director
- *The Story of the Wheel* (1934), Director

## Gallery

- ![Director Humphrey Jennings stretches to touch a piece of sculpture in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, as he suggests a shot for camera operator Chick Fowle ](https://film.one/media/person/3859371/gallery-b35ec2f6c159.jpg) Director Humphrey Jennings stretches to touch a piece of sculpture in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, as he suggests a shot for camera operator Chick Fowle  — Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Director_Humphrey_Jennings_stretches_to_touch_a_piece_of_sculpture_in_Poets%27_Corner_in_Westminster_Abbey%2C_as_he_suggests_a_shot_for_camera_operator_Chick_Fowle_of_the_Crown_Film_Unit_in_January_1941._D1861_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Humphrey Jennings](https://film.one/media/person/3859371/gallery-1dd5da37b53f.jpg) Humphrey Jennings — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/humphrey-jennings