Desmond Lane(1924-2015)

He became known as 'The Penny Whistle Man'. His mother bought him his first whistle when he was three and he soon found that he could play any tune on. It was a stepping stone to woodwind instruments because of the similar fingering. He took up the tenor saxophone at eighteen and three weeks later landed his first professional job. While playing jazz during the war, he was posted to the British Forces Network as a radio entertainer. After being demobbed, he took up the clarinet and played country and western music. On a TV talent show, he discovered that a well-played penny whistle appealed to the public and never looked back, continuing with the whistle he'd bought for 2 and 9 (about 29 pence) in 1947.