Jazz legend Sir Johnny Dankworth, who died this week, was on the verge of his music career when he lived in Herefordshire 70 years ago.
As the world laments his passing at the age of 82, those with longer memories in the county have been remembering that the teenaged John Dankworth came to Leominster when his school, the Sir George Monoux Grammar School from Leyton in London, was relocated to the town during the Second World War.
Betty Downes recalled those early years of the war when the saxophonist, later admired by such notable figures as Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, lodged with a Leominster family in Caswell Road.
Sir Johnny’s death was announced by his wife, Dame Cleo Laine, at a star-studded show at the weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of an entertainment venue set up by the couple at their Buckinghamshire home.
During the war years Mrs Downes worked at Woolworths in Corn Square with Myfanwy Beel who took the jazz prodigy in as a lodger. “He lodged with Vanny Beel and her family and sheused to talk about him at work,” said Mrs Downes. “Later on, when he became well-known, he visited the family in Leominster with Cleo Laine, and Vanny would always go to his shows go backstage afterwards to see him.”
Local historian John Sharp, who now lives in Gloucestershire, recalled how the Monoux Grammar School had to share Leominster Grammar School building with local pupils when it was relocated for a two-year stay in 1941.
When the school moved back to London, the boys, parents and staff presented £500 to Leominster Grammar to endow a games trophy.
Mrs Beel’s son, Kenneth, now living near Cheltenham, told the Journal that Johnny Dankworth lodged in his family home at Leominster. “He was with us for perhaps a year or 18 months, and though he would have been about six years older than me I think he would have been about 13 or 14,” said Mr Beel.
“Mum made contact with him after he became famous and kept in touch with him,” he said. “She made herself known to him whenever the band was playing in Oxfordshire where we had relatives.”
Sir Johnny was said to have become smitten by jazz at an early age, and was playing in semi-professional bands while still at school.
In 1944, a year after leaving Leominster, he passed the audition to study at the Royal Academy of Music.
lSir Johnny Dankworth wasn’t the only famous figure to come to Leominster with the Monoux Grammar School. Local people remember that the England cricket captain Douglas Insole was also billeted in the town during the war.
