Harry Oakes was born on 16 January 1921.
After service with the Royal Corps of Signals, Harry Oakes volunteered for the AFPU and served with No 5 Section in North West Europe from 1944 – 1945. He then served in South East Asia and then returned to cover the Allied Occupation of Vienna, December 1946. Equally at home using a cine or still photograph camera, he was one of the AFPU team deployed under the command of Lt H A Wilson to cover the relief of Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) concentration camp in April 1945. He also covered the Rhein Crossing, accompanying the airborne landing of 6th Airborne Division, and the meeting of British and Soviet Forces on the Elbe.
Harry worked closely with Len Harris whilst at Hammer, and they both left around the same time in 1962.
He also worked as a special effects lighting cameraman on a number of television science fiction programs including Space 1999, Thunderbirds and UFO.
Harry Oakes died in Windsor on 11 December 2012, he was 91.