Ronald Binge (15 July 1910 – 6 September 1979)

“Much admired for his delightful Elizabethan Serenade and Sailing By, Binge was a composer of innovative light music popular throughout his lifetime and beyond. Born in Derby, he sang in a local church choir as a child. Later a cinema organist, he performed at seaside resorts.

He also played organ with the first band led by conductor Mantovani. Binge served in the RAF during the war and helped organise camp entertainments. After the war, Mantovani employed him as arranger and composer for his new orchestra. His arrangement of Charmaine using a cascading strings effect resulted in an international hit for Mantovani.

Binge also composed original works and film scores. Elizabethan Serenade (1951) was used by the BBC as a signature tune, performed in a vocal version as Where The Gentle Avon Flows and also won him an Ivor Novello awar. Sailing By (1963) regularly introduces the BBC’s shipping forecast. Other works include The Watermill (1958) and his Symphony in C (Saturday Symphony, 1970). Binge died in Hampshire aged 69.”

Taken from “100 Years of British Music“, published by the Performing Rights Society.