Harold Jennings died suddenly in the town centre on Thursday May 12th. We were all very used to seeing him around the town with his guide dog, confidently striding to his next appointment on the piano tuning circuit.

He always seemed to enjoy his social visits to the bar where he was an entertaining companion. He also managed to work on productions — he first did sound for The Winter’s Tale in 1979, and repeated this role in 14 other productions up to 1987. If Harold was doing sound this placed a discipline on the actors — as he was totally reliant on listening to the dialogue for his cues absolute accuracy was essential. He often attended shows as an audience member, usually asking for a brief synopsis of the play from the director beforehand. In the auditorium he was always accompanied by his dog — his first one, Ivor, snored very loudly for a moment or two (until Harold kicked him) which mystified those on stage at the time, and the Club’s archives record that ‘Ivor is affectionately remembered for a well-timed snort during the AGM, which admirably expressed the feeling of the meeting at that moment.’

Harold was also a lifelong friend of the internationally famous jazz pianist Eddie Thompson, and when Eddie played a concert at Campus West a select group of us had a private performance in the bar afterwards, with lots of reminiscences and much laughter and music between Harold and Eddie.

Always companionable and a contributor to any discussion on how we should run our theatre, Harold was a well-known and well-loved member of the Club. We send our deepest sympathy to Norma.