Francis Reid

It is with deep regret that we have to announce the death of ALD Fellow Francis Reid. 

Francis was a founding member of the Association, playing a key role in establishing the practice of stage lighting design and the role of Lighting Designer in the UK.

He was 86, and had spent all his working life in and around theatre, but was also an inspiring teacher and a prolific author, who made lighting and the arts of theatre making come alive for several generations of practitioners, at RADA, at what is now Central St Martins, the Royal Conservatoire Scotland and around the world. But at heart he was always a theatre maker who did lighting, rather than a lighting man who did theatre. 

Lighting designer Jenny Cane, one of many who’s early career Francis oversaw, wrote  "Francis was a wonderful man and my mentor for several years. He was always so generous with his time and patience with an ingénue Production Lx. It was Francis that gave a young girl her first chance in an industry that here-to-fore had frowned on women electricians."

Editor John Offord said: “It was a privilege and pleasure to have known Francis and to have worked with him in later years on the publication of the many interesting titles that poured out of a lively mind – and with the help of a crafty pen.”

He will be very sorely missed and our thoughts are with his family.