Churchill Visits Jamaica was produced by Martin Rennalls, the head of the recently established Jamaica Film Unit, and his two assistants, Milton Weller and Trevor Welsh, all of whom had received their training from two members of the Colonial Film Unit – R. W. Harris and G. Evans – as part of the first West Indies Film Training School in 1950 (Colonial Cinema, September 1950, 66). Rennalls explained in an article in Colonial Cinema that in October 1951 ‘a branch of the Education Department was established for the proper integration of the services of Film Production, Projection and Library Services’, with the Film branch becoming a permanent unit in April 1953 (Colonial Cinema, March 1953, 15). The unit often used the Colonial Film Unit in England to process the films and to carry out the synchronisation of sound and visuals. The sound itself was often, as in this case, recorded at Radio Jamaica’s studios, although a subsequent report on the film Together We Build concluded that ‘this is manifestly not the perfect place for the complexities of co-ordinating and laying a sound track’ (Daily Gleaner, 5 October 1953, 7 and 28 December 1953, 14).

Churchill Visits Jamaica was first previewed at the Unit’s headquarters at 5 South Race Course on Friday 3 July 1953 before the Mayor, Mr Edward Fagan, who also features in the film. The Mayor said he was ‘pleased with what he had seen and requested that the film be shown at Bournemouth, Bath and throughout the island’. The Mayor also promised to speak to the Chief Minister about a number of issues, including the acquisition of new technical equipment and the provision of a theatre specifically for public showings of the organisation’s films (Daily Gleaner, 6 July, 1953).

Churchill Visits Jamaica was screened at Shortwood College as part of the annual retreat of the Women Teachers Federation on 20 July, ‘presented by Messrs. Rennalls and Powell’ and then played at The Garrison Theatre on 24 July, as part of a show arranged by a local scout association, which included the screening of the ‘1^st Caribbean Boys Scouts Jamboree’. The report outlined the film’s contents and explained that ‘it is hoped that many persons will avail themselves of this the first opportunity when the film will be shown to the general public’ (Daily Gleaner, 31 July 1953, 10 and 24 July 1953, 11). The footage of Churchill in Jamaica was also shown under the collective title ‘Jamaica Magazine No. 3’ in the Old library at the University College of the West Indies on 5 August. The screening was attended by the Governor Sir Hugh Foot and W. A. Bustamante, the Chief Minister, both of whom appear within the film. The Daily Gleanerfurther explained that the show ‘was attended by a representative crowd, consisting chiefly of staff members and undergraduates of the University College’ (Daily Gleaner, 7 August 1953, 14).

Although Churchill frequently holidayed in Jamaica, Cabinet papers reveal that he was strongly opposed to the immigration of Jamaicans to Britain during this period. Churchill’s Government asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1954 to produce a report on ways of stopping black people getting jobs in the Civil Service, and Churchill told Sir Ian Gilmour in the same year that ‘immigration is the most important subject facing this country’ (The Times, 2 January 1985, 4 and 20 March 1978, 16). In 1954 Churchill also told Sir Hugh Foot, the Governor of Jamaica, that he feared Jamaican immigration would produce a ‘magpie society, and that would never do’, while Harold Macmillan recalled Churchill suggesting ‘Keep Britain White’ as a slogan for the forthcoming 1955 election campaign (James, 2004, 370).