A particular favourite in the UK is Sailing By, which has announced the Shipping Forecast on Radio Four since 1973.

However, in 1914 his dad joined the British Army and did not return till 1919.

He died on Christmas Day, 1920, so his mother was left to bring up Ronnie and his brother and sister on her own.

Andrews, Derby, and the organist and choirmaster there gave him lessons.

Ronnie talked of him as an imaginative and sensitive musician and a first-rate teacher.

This presented the opportunity for composing for a real if small orchestra, and developed in all the musicians a high degree of sight-reading ability.

During the next few years he played with orchestral combinations of wide and varied kinds.

British Television broadcasting suddenly ceased in the middle of their preparations.

In his spare time he wrote the little piece Spitfire after the famous fighter place of that name.

He also began to learn German, and in 1944 I was invigilating a Royal Society of Arts Examination in German when Ronnie appeared as the only entrant.

He passed his exam, and we got married a year later At the end of the war however we were not allowed to enter either Germany or Austria because of military restrictions, but we went to Switzerland where Ronnie practised his German, and wrote Music Box Polka.

Ronnie wrote: I made orchestral arrangements of the piano music of composers in many spheres of music.

Not perhaps from Bach to Boogie, but certainly from John Ireland to Noel Coward, both of whom write of their approval of my work.

In this way Ronnie devised the amazingly successful echo effect, which became Mantovanis famous trade mark.

He could have gone on writing in this style for many more years, but he wanted to create other kinds of music as well.

In 1957 he won the Ivor Novello aware for the best light orchestral composition of the year, Elizabethan Serenade.

Longer, more serious compositions followed with the Saxophone Concerto, Saturday Symphony and Te D eum.

He was always deeply interested in working with the musicians who played his music.

He often wrote for amateur or local groups his Cornet Carillon is still played regularly by brass band ensembles everywhere.

He wrote pieces for choirs, and had a longstanding connection with the Wimbledon Girls Choir under their conductor Malcolm Parker.

He even wrote a piece for a primary school orchestra on one occasion.

And he loved to travel and conduct his own music with orchestras that were performing or recording his music.

Other passions in his life were conversation with his many friends and colleagues, and as a recreation he used his creative talents in painting and woodwork, many items of which are still being appreciated by his family.

Sailing By Ronald Binge