G.B.L. Wilson by Dame Beryl Grey (August 2007)

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GB, as he was known to everyone, was one of my very best friends. It was Arnold Haskell who brought him backstage to meet me, after my first performance in the full-length Swan Lake on June 11^th 1942. This was at the then called New Theatre, St Martins Lane, London, and it was my 15^th birthday. After this introduction GB became one of my most devoted fans, sending encouraging little notes, then inviting me out to tea. He would often come home and visit my parents and take us out for short drives, a great treat as petrol was then rationed. When I had a few days break from performances I would visit his home in Trowbridge where his mother would make me very welcome. She reminded me of a Victorian painting, dignified, gracious and always perfectly groomed.

After the war when he was at the Science Museum he would take great pride in explaining to me the exhibits there. He himself had a formidable brain and it was always stimulating to be with such a knowledgeable person. His intellect was brilliant. One of his greatest hobbies was, of course, photography and GB took so very many of me, both on and off stage, all of which I shall ever treasure.

Inevitably, after I became a freelance Ballerina in 1957, and I travelled extensively, we met less often but our friendship never wavered. In a copy of his first Ballet Dictionary he gave to me is this inscription:  'This book is entirely due to you. If you'd not become my favourite dancer (and favourite mortal too) in 1942, the train of events leading up to this would never have been started and my whole life would have been very different - so thank you!'