Lyndon Wainwright

Lyndon Bentley Wainwright (7 December 1919 – 2 January 2018) was a British metrologist, ballroom dancer and author.

He worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) during World War II, and was a chairman of the British Engineering Metrology Association.

After the war, he was a leading exhibition dancer, and one of a small group of experts who introduced Latin American dance to Britain.

Wainwright wrote nine books on ballroom dancing.

Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire in 1919, Wainwright married three times: to Felicia Heslop (m. 1943–60; divorced); Isobel Scott (m. 1964–69; divorced), and Yvonne Gandy (m. 1973–2011; her death).

He had one son, Mark, from his second marriage and four grandchildren, Annabel, Connor, Ewan, and Brodie.

The Palais had opened in 1919 as a dance hall and entertainment venue, and finally closed in 2007.

Wainwright met his first wife, Felicia (14 April 1920 – September 1993), in 1940, and they soon started to train as a ballroom dance couple.

After his education and upbringing in Scarborough, Wainwright joined the NPL, the largest applied physics laboratory in the UK, in 1939.

There he trained and worked as an engineering metrologist.

From September 1939, this facility worked mainly in support of the war effort, and so employment there was to some extent a reserved occupation: key employees were not called up for military service if the employer made appropriate application to the War Office.

In addition to their work, staff members were expected to join the NPL Fire Brigade as part-timers or the ARP (air-raid warning and fire watch).

Later in life, when his active career as a dancer was over, Lyndon returned to metrology, working at the National Engineering Laboratory in East Kilbride, Scotland for four years, and then for seven years was head of quality control and metrology at PIRA, the Research Association for the Printing, Packaging and Paper Making Industries (formerly PATRA, the Printing Industry Research Association) in Leatherhead, Surrey.

In this capacity he lectured in the UK and abroad, and sat on committees of the International Association of Research Organizations in the Printing Industries.

They married in 1943, the year they first gave a dance exhibition for payment.

After taking coaching from Monsieur Pierre, they started to compete as a professional couple.

In 1948 they won the Premier Prix in a World's Professional Eight Dance Ballroom championship, staged in Paris.

The couple then specialised in the Latin dances and helped to introduce these dance forms to the British public.

The partnership was billed as Lyndon & Felicia for their dance exhibitions, which were given in clubs, ballrooms, restaurants, celebrations and on television.

On BBC tv, they appeared with the Edmundo Ros Orchestra, and Victor Silvester's BBC Dancing Club, dancing rumba, samba, paso doble and mambo.

Between 1950 and 1960, the pair were probably the leading exhibition dancers of Latin American style in England.

At their peak, they were presenting over 400 shows a year, often several times at different venues on a Sunday, and they also ran dance studios in Kingston, Ewell and Purley in Greater London.

They were engaged to perform every alternate Dancers' Night for a year at the Hammersmith Palais.

Many years later, the BBC invited Lyndon to take part in a television documentary Last Man at the Palais dealing with the history of the Hammersmith Palais.

After his dance partnership and marriage ended in 1960, Wainwright devoted himself to teaching, writing and the administrative side of the dance world.

He was Executive Councillor, Hon. Treasurer, and Company Secretary of the International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA).

He served as a delegate to the British Dance Council and as founder and Hon Secretary of its Teachers' Committee, and on the Council for Dance Education and Training, and the Central Council of Physical Recreation.

He was an acknowledged expert in the Performing and Phonographic Rights involved in playing music in public.

For over 50 years he contributed articles to dance magazines such as Dance Teacher (now Dance International), Ballroom Dancing Times (now Dance Today), and Dance Expression.

Wainwright also wrote articles for the Daily Mirror.

The dance profession has honoured Lyndon for his services to dance.

Wainwright was chairman of the English Metrology Association from 1967 to 1972.

He received the Carl Alan Award for 1996–99, and other honours from the dance community.

He was an expert on phonogram performance rights and was a member of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

In 1996 and 1999 he received the Carl Alan Award, in 1998 the Classique de Danse, in 2000 the President's Award of the Ballroom Dancers' Federation, and in 2005 the Distinguished Service Award of the IDTA.

Wainwright is or has been a member of these dance organisations:

With a fellow professional, Lyndon danced a waltz, which was the last dance shown on the televised program, first screened on BBC Four on Christmas Eve 2007.

He died in January 2018 at the age of 98.