Francis Dillnutt

Sound engineer, mainly for classical releases. --- Francis Dillnutt, who has died at the age of 91, was one of the finest classical recording engineers of his generation. Following in the footsteps of his father, George Dillnutt, whose entire working life from 1899 onwards was spent with the Gramophone Company, Francis joined EMI at Hayes in August 1940 as a 16 year old. EMI had been created by the merger of the Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931, whose record labels thereby included His Master Voice, Columbia, Parlophone and Regal Zonophone.