Page 39 - L&T Mavis Bennett
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Mavis Bennett Redditch Heritage
th
-2000 Redditch Advertiser Archive – Wednesday 9 August 2000
50 years ago - August 12, 1950
When the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company opens a week's visit to the Theatre Royal in
Birmingham on August 28, the principal baritone parts in the evergreen Gilbert and
Sullivan operas will be sung and played by Alan Styler.
This young man, for he is but 25, from Redditch, has gone far since 1947 when he
was auditioned by the late Rupert D'Oyly Carte at the Savoy Theatre in London.
Educated at St Luke's School in Headless Cross and then at the county high school,
Mr Styler was an electrician prior to joining the armed forces in 1943.
Serving with the Grenadier Guards, Mr Styler was one among the first troops to land
in Normandy on D-Day and saw service in France and Belgium as a gunner in a
Churchill tank.
He was demobilised in the early months of 1946 and commenced what is set to be
a hugely successful music career with singing studies under Miss Mavis Bennett.
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