Lance Dossor, the YSO and Wakefield Playhouse - Tony Cunnane's Afterthoughts

Written 19 February 2010

My diary for this week in 1953, when I was 17 years old, has a number of interesting entries. On 19 February 1953, for example, I wrote that Dad helped me to fill in my very first Income Tax return that had arrived in that morning’s post – we always did things by return of post in those days! It would have been very simple to fill in. At that period I had a temporary job with the West Riding County Council Licensing Department in St John’s, Wakefield. I earned £3 7s 3d gross per week (decimal equivalent £3.37). There was a deduction of 3 shillings and 5 pence (17p) for National Health Insurance and I paid 1 shilling per week (5p) Income Tax. After 5 weeks the Inland Revenue sent me 5 shillings (25p) tax refund! Now, I call that efficient!

On 21 February I went for one of my regular solo bicycle rides. I battled in the cold against very strong, biting head winds to Denby Dale, in the rolling foothills of the Pennines (the location since 1973 for the long-running BBC TV series "Last of the Summer Wine"). From there I turned south east to Barnsley and then north again back to Wakefield. I covered the 32 miles in 2 hours and wrote that I was totally exhausted when I got home. I remember the ride in great detail even today – the headwinds seemed to follow me every time I changed direction. The Pennines can be like that.

Shyness was never one of my faults! I remember that conversation quite well. I explained my personal situation and the violinist gave me the name and address of a violin teacher he could recommend. He also suggested I might like to consider changing to viola since there was always a shortage of good viola players. I told him I'd already thought of  that myself. (Lack of tact was one of my faults then – but not now). When I spoke to my parents the following day about the concert, Dad told me that they needed to sell our piano, which had been purchased a few years earlier to help me with my music studies at Salford Grammar School. I suddenly realised that my parents were very short of money so I made no mention of violin, or viola lessons, and said I was happy for them to sell the piano. Of course, I didn’t know then that less than six months later I would enlist in the RAF and stay in uniform for the next 47 years. I never had another violin lesson.

One undated reference I found on the Internet said that "the Wakefield Playhouse exterior is easily recognisable, making a handsome presence on Westgate, with its close neighbour the Opera House." That must have been a long time ago because these days the building is an eyesore on a thoroughfare that has more than its fair share of eyesores.

I had more success searching for information on Lance Dossor – a name I had only vaguely remembered until I found the reference in my diary. He was born Harry Lancelot Dossor in Weston-Super-Mare in 1916. It seems he himself used to tell the story about his introduction to the great pianist and composer Serge Rachmaninoff who was in London for a series of concerts and recitals. Another famous British pianist, Cyril Smith, did the introductions. Cyril introduced Lance as "a very promising young pianist who has recently been successful in the Chopin prize competition in Warsaw, Poland". Rachmaninoff responded, cruelly, in his heavy Russian accent "Ah, but who were the judges?"

Lance Dossor emigrated to Australia a few weeks after I heard him in Wakefield’s Playhouse and he remained there until he retired in 1979. He died in Adelaide in 2005.