Reginald Faithful "Rex" Palmer (16 February 1896 – 12 October 1972)Rex Palmer, ''GravestonePhotos.com''
Retrieved 25 March 2021 was a British broadcaster. He was an early

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

presenter who made programmes for children under the pseudonym "Uncle Rex", and sang on air as "Rex Faithful".

Life

Palmer was born in

Lincoln, England Lincoln () is a cathedral city and non-metropolitan district, district in Lincolnshire, England, of which it is the county town. In the 2021 Census, the city's district had a population of 103,813. The 2021 census gave the Lincoln Urban Area, u ...

. In the First World War, he served with the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

under Edmund Allenby in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. Palmer was the first London Station Director of 2LO, Denis Gifford, ''The Golden Age of Radio'', B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1985, , p.203 and was the first person appointed to the BBC's predecessor, the British Broadcasting Company, by John (later Lord) Reith, in November 1922. He became known as "The Golden Voice of Wireless". He presented children's programmes from 1923, and also presented concert programmes and sang as a

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

. Search, Rex Palmer, ''Radio Times'', BBC Genome
Retrieved 25 March 2021 On leaving the BBC in 1929, to join the Gramophone Company, he was described by the '' Evening News'' as "one of the original five members of the BBC". On 11 October 1931, he introduced the first English-language radio programme in France, ''A Concert of His Master's Voice Records'' on Radio Paris, which was sponsored by the Gramophone Company and made by the International Broadcasting Company. At the Gramophone Company, where he rose to be general manager of the International Artistes' Department, he oversaw recordings for the label, by conductors and composers including Sir

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

and

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

. He left the Gramophone Company in 1940. He also narrated films for British Pathé. He rejoined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(as it had become) in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, eventually becoming a Wing Commander. Palmer returned to the BBC to present nostalgic programmes such as ''Those Were the Days'' and ''These Radio Times'' in the 1950s. He appeared as a castaway on the

programme '' Desert Island Discs'' on 10 February 1958. He died in London in 1972, aged 76, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery. In November 2008, his papers were auctioned by Bonhams.

References

External links

*
The Magic Box Aka Jack Hylton & HMV
' 1931 British Pathé newsreel, featuring Palmer's narration 1896 births People from Lincoln, England 1972 deaths BBC radio presenters Royal Air Force officers Royal Flying Corps officers British record producers Children's radio British Army personnel of World War I Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Military personnel from Lincoln, England {{UK-radio-bio-stub