We have written about Richard Briers our first Patron but have said very little about our newest Patron. The reason may well have been spotted by one critic who writing about The Happy Prisoner in 1951 said ‘Leon Sinden again shows his remarkable versatility. …they will not admit it but there are gentle ladies who take their seats in the circle to see Richard Mathews, and Richard Mathews they get…nobody I suppose goes to see, for example Leon Sinden. Indeed only the keenest programme readers probably ever spot Mr Sinden. That is because he never appears on stage as himself; he is lost in whatever characterisation he has to assume. This is good acting.’

Although Leon himself goes on to say ‘I hold no great brief for critics, remembering that I had my own column of criticism on the Evening Argus and Sussex Daily News at the age of 18.

Born in Ditchling he is of course the youngest member of the Sinden family and is the only surviving founder member of the Ditchling Players being on the first committee when they were formed in 1945, although he was involved on the stage even before that.

He started his acting career during the war while still at school in a company based at the Theatre Royal in Brighton taking plays to Service Camps along the South Coast of England. After a spell in English Repertory and in Wales where he says they rehearsed on the train between venues, he went to Scotland in 1951 to join the famous Wilson Barrett Company which worked between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. When this closed in 1955 he transferred to Perth where he bought his house.

In the seven years which followed he spent a year touring with the New Zealand National Players; two years in Terence Rattigan’s Ross with Sir Alec Guiness at the Haymarket Theatre in London; a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford on Avon; a visit to Broadway in Semi-detached with Leonard Rossiter and a considerable amount of London based TV.

By now he had seen very little of his Perth home and was delighted when he was invited by Kenneth Ireland to join the 1965 season at Pitlochry. In the years that followed he played in eight Pitlochry seasons, including the 1981 opening of the new theatre and directed in two others. His first part there was Colonel Lukyn in The Magistrate and others have included The Duke in Revenger’s Tragedy, the General in The Amorous Prawn, Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal, Philip in The Little Hut, Mr Oakley in The Jealous Wife, Alquist in R.U.R, Anselme in The Miser, Lord Augustus Lorton in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Mr Codie in Dear Brutus, Mr Venables in What Every Woman Knows and Lord Caversham in An Ideal Husband.

Immediately prior to the 1994 season he had an eight month’s run in Peter Hall’s production of She Stoops to Conquer with his brother, Donald. The two brothers have worked together only five times in 50 years – initially as the brothers Dudley and Claud in George and Margaret in the 1940s, then they were in Perecles in London with Paul Scofield in 1950 – a brief appearance in a film called Rentadick directed by Ned Sherrin – a spell on Broadway in London Assurance in 1974 and lastly in She Stoops .

Leon has been a member of the Council of Actors’ Equity for 17 years and has served since its inception on the Accreditation Board of the National Council for Drama Training, which travels round assessing the quality of Drama Schools. In TV, apart from such regulars as The Avengers and Upstairs Downstairs he has played the recurring character of Mr Carradine, the solicitor in High Road although his favourite among many TV parts was as Giles in Rebecca.

For many years he listed his favourite stage performances as Alquist in R.U.R., the General in Strindberg’s Dance of Death and Falstaff. But recently his part of CS Lewis’s brother, Warnie in Shadowlands with Tom Fleming has superseded all others as No 1 favourite.

His hobby, like his sister’s, is going to auction sales which he says really sets the adrenaline flowing. He loves classical music, and quotes as one of his most satisfying achievements the fact that he has read Proust from cover to cover, and is currently halfway through the new translation. ‘No other book has such superbly observed characters and situations – I keep wanting to learn whole pages – beside this all other biographical books are mere sketches.’

Leon has recently done three programmes in Scotland for Radio Heartland’s Personal Choice series in which he told the story of his life through musical associations – ‘A very enjoyable experience’.