David Dunhill, radio announcer and trainer, died in March 2005.  This is taken from The Times, :

David Dunhill
March 1, 1917 - March 20, 2005
BBC radio broadcaster who announced the demise of the Home Service and taught newsreaders to find their true voices

DAVID DUNHILL came to fame in the 1950s as a BBC radio announcer. His career with the BBC in various roles spanned almost five decades. In his final role — as a freelance teacher and trainer for local radio stations — he taught and influenced many fledgeling radio and TV presenters at the start of their careers, including Libby Purves, Jill Dando and Jon Snow. He was also a longstanding campaigner for gay and bisexual rights.

David Penrose Dunhill was born in 1917. His father, Thomas Dunhill, was a composer, a contemporary of Hubert Parry and John Ireland, and brother of Alfred Dunhill, who founded the Dunhill tobacco firm. His mother, Molly Arnold, was the great-granddaughter of Dr Arnold, of Rugby, and great-niece of the poet Matthew Arnold. David was brought up largely by nannies and educated at Mowden Preparatory School in Brighton and Wellington College. His childhood, though generally happy, was overshadowed by his mother’s illness and eventual death from TB when he was 12.

On leaving school, he joined the Dunhill firm, working in Paris, but left to train at the London School of Journalism and found a job as a reporter with the Swindon Evening Advertiser. When war broke out, he joined the RAF and volunteered to go to the Middle East where he worked as a clerk with a mobile garage unit going back and forth across North Africa.

It was this experience which started his career in radio when he joined a forces broadcasting unit in Cairo. After the war his first job was with the BBC Light Programme as staff announcer and newsreader, along with such names from the heyday of radio as Alvar Liddell, Ronald Fletcher, Stuart Hibberd, John Snagge, Robert Dougall and Jack de Manio. He soon found himself resident announcer with the popular comedy Take It From Here, written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden and starring “Professor” Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and June Whitfield as the Glums.

After a break from broadcasting during which he worked with the BBC personnel department, he returned to the Home Service and the Third Programme as a continuity announcer.

In 1967 it fell to Dunhill to close down the Home Service and introduce listeners to the new Radio 4 the next morning. In his typical, slightly sentimental style, he marked the changeover thus: “This is the end of the Home Service for today and for all days. We’re like a bride on the eve of her wedding. We go on being the same person, we hope. But we’ll never again have the same name. Tomorrow, at 6.35am, we become Radio 4. So, goodbye Home Service, two of the best words in the British language. And still, I’m sure, the only answer you can give to the question: ‘What is radio for?’ — two words we shan’t erase. Good night.”

A good dozen years before normal retirement age Dunhill went freelance and found the role he loved most and which yielded his most enduring contribution to broadcasting: he taught TV and radio newsreaders, reporters and presenters to speak naturally and effectively. He travelled the country working with hundreds of broadcasters, coaching and cajoling them to sound interesting (and interested) and like themselves rather than using their idea of a radio or television “voice”.

Dunhill’s 60-year marriage to Barbara Wilkins was a loving but unusual relationship which allowed David to express his bisexuality while remaining a committed husband and father to their four children. In the 1970s he and Barbara took part in a discussion on the BBC Panorama programme about how it was possible for a gay man and his straight wife to live happily and openly in what could in all other respects be described as a “conventional” marriage.

Dunhill was an active member of the Gay Christian Movement and worked to support other gays, lesbians and bisexuals throughout his life. Though prone to bouts of depression, he was a witty and sociable man with an immense fund of jokes and stories. He liked walking, especially on Dartmoor where he lived for many years, often reciting poetry as he went.

His passion was words, spoken and written. He was an incessant writer of poems and letters and also turned his hand to scripts for plays, pageants (notably at Guildford in 1959) and sons-et-lumières at various cathedrals. Towards the end of the 1990s he published a biography of his father, Thomas Dunhill: Maker of Music, and produced a collection of verse, Good-Bi Songs.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and by four children.

This is taken from The Telegraph:

David Dunhill

David Dunhill, who has died aged 88, was a well-known radio announcer with the BBC, and worked for the Corporation for nearly five decades.
     
In 1967, it fell to Dunhill to close down the Home Service and introduce listeners to the new Radio 4 the next morning. In characteristic, slightly sentimental style, he marked the changeover thus: "This is the end of the Home Service for today, and for all days. We're like a bride on the eve of her wedding. We go on being the same person, we hope. But we'll never again have the same name. Tomorrow, at 6.35 am, we become Radio 4. So, goodbye, Home Service, two of the best words in the British language - and still, I'm sure, the only answer you can give to the question: 'What is radio for?' Two words we shan't erase. Good night."

David Penrose Dunhill, one of three children, was born on March 1 1917. His father, Thomas F Dunhill, was a composer (a contemporary of Hubert Parry and John Ireland) and the brother of Alfred Dunhill, who founded the tobacco firm; his mother, Molly Arnold, who died from TB when her son was 12, was the great-grand-daughter of Dr Arnold of Rugby and the great-niece of the poet Matthew Arnold.

After Wellington, David joined the Dunhill firm in Paris, but left to do a course at the London School of Journalism, then found a job as a reporter with the Swindon Evening Advertiser.

When war broke out, he joined the RAF, working in North Africa as a clerk with a mobile garage unit. During this period he was invited to join a forces' broadcasting unit in Cairo.

On returning home, Dunhill was taken on as a staff announcer and newsreader by the BBC Light Programme, working with names such as Alvar Liddell, Ronald Fletcher, Stuart Hibberd, John Snagge, Robert Dougall and Jack de Manio. He soon found himself the resident announcer with the popular comedy Take It From Here, written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden and starring "Professor" Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and June Whitfield as the Glums.

After a stint with the BBC's personnel department, he returned to the Home Service and the Third Programme as a continuity announcer. When he was in his fifties he went freelance, travelling the country to teach newsreaders, reporters and presenters to speak naturally and effectively on radio and television.

Among those he tutored were Libby Purves, Jill Dando and Jon Snow.

Dunhill was also a doughty campaigner for gay and bisexual rights. His marriage, in 1947, to Barbara Wilkins lasted until his death, and remained a loving - if unusual - relationship which allowed him to express his bisexuality while remaining a committed husband and father to their two daughters and twin sons.

In 1997 Dunhill published a biography of his father, Thomas Dunhill: Maker of Music, and produced a collection of verse, Good-Bi Songs.

David Dunhill died on March 20. He is survived by his wife and their children.
           

David Dunhill, broadcaster, was born on March 1, 1917. He died on March 20, 2005, aged 88.

David Dunhill was known as a gentleman in the true meaning of the word. He had a deceptively relaxed attitude to training. He was known to munch apples whilst listening. Although younger members of staff sometimes thought he had told them very little, when asked about it the penny finally dropped.
I remember him telling me that he had a spell in hospital and the nurse found it terribly amusing that Mr. Dunhill who smoked Rothmans was in the next bed to a Mr. Rothaman who smoked you know what. I don't know whether the story is true, but it was a good yarn anyway.

Having recently found this Forum and deeply saddened by the number of names I recognise, worked with and respected, a special place has to be reserved for David Dunhill. At my first training session he said:"At some time in your life you lived in Kenton, Middlesex" He was right, between the ages of 5 and 10 then the family moved to Chorley Wood in Hertfordshire.
In the few sessions we had, he was very generous with his time and expertise. A belated thank you.