World famous Barrow-born tenor dies, aged 100

Barrow-born Thomas Round gained fame as a tenor with the D’Oyly Carte and Sadler’s Wells opera companies before being thrust into stardom when he performed for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance.

He also gained enormous popularity with fans of Gilbert and Sullivan, starring in a movie about the partnership and various televised performances of their work.

The-father-of-one and husband to Alice, who died several years ago, lived in Bolton-le-Sands and died in his sleep on Sunday October 2.

He will be laid to rest in Lancaster on what would have been his 101st birthday.

Nephew David York called his uncle a "remarkable man", saying he had been in excellent health for a man of his age and had only begun living in a care home since March this year.

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"He had started to forget things about three years ago, but when I visited he always knew who I was," Mr York added.

Mr York recalled fond memories of his uncle coming to sing in Barrow and, in his later years, Newby Bridge, and even helped him install an audio and visual display of his career.

The Barrovian helped make history by starring in a televised production of La Traviata , the first full-length opera shown on the BBC in 1955, and continued singing in a career which saw him travel the world.

For some time, Mr Round worked as a policeman in Lancaster and then as a fighter pilot in the RAF before finding his true calling and charming his way into the D'Oyly Carte company by singing for their manager after watching a matinee of The Mikado at the King's Theatre in Hammersmith.

Mr Round's funeral will take place on October 18 at 11.45am in Lancaster and Morecambe crematorium in Powder House Lane.

His family have asked that well-wishers respect his wishes by making donations to Macmillan nurses instead of sending flowers.

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