Fay Lenore: Born: March 22, 1928; Died: January 8, 2026
Fay Lenore, who has died aged 97, was a celebrated variety performer who enjoyed a lifelong career in entertainment, often topping the bill in revue shows, variety acts and pantomimes. Regular venues included the London Palladium, the Alhambra, Glasgow and the King’s, Edinburgh where she was well known for starring in the successful Five Past 8 Show alongside names like Kenneth McKellar, Rikki Fulton, Jackie Milroy and Stanley Baxter.
Her many pantomimes included Cinderella, Sinbad the Sailor, Mother Goose and her favourite, A Wish for Jamie. The latter was so popular that its initial 11-week run in Glasgow in 1960/1 attracted total crowds of 180,000, with attendances at her subsequent Five Past 8 Show in the same theatre raising the total to 500,000 over the year.
A talented actress, singer, dancer and comedienne, Fay’s range enabled her appear also in drama and television series like Crossroads and Take the High Road. During her 70-year plus career she appeared throughout Britain, from Brighton in the south to Inverness in the north and most points in between. Her career also took her to America, India, Kenya, Aden, Cyprus and Germany and elsewhere.
She enjoyed many highlights, topping the bill several times at the London Palladium being special, but pride of place went to her three appearances in the Royal Command Performances in London and Glasgow in front of the late Queen Elizabeth to whom she was presented each time.
A tribute lunch in her honour in 2007 hosted by the Scottish Music Hall and Theatre Variety Society was another highlight where her opening remarks in her speech reflected her sense of humour and humility, “I was astounded, nae gobsmacked, to learn the society had decided to honour me with this lunch and when you have a gob as big as mine…!”
Fay was born in Newcastle Mary Leonora Faith Dodwell. Her parents were Leonard Dodwell, stage name Leon Dodd, and Bunty nee Gordon. Through her mother’s first marriage, she had a half brother James Forbes, a wartime RAF Wing Commander. Her parents were well known variety artistes who toured England in pantomimes and revue shows, some staged in their home base of Whitley Bay. Theatre was in Fay’s blood, making her stage debut aged 18 months in one of her parents’ shows. As their touring commitments made conventional upbringing difficult, she became a boarder at La Sagesse Convent School, Newcastle.
She was the third generation of artistes, her grandmother and great aunts performing as members of The Six English Rosebuds. One great aunt, Beattie Evans, whose make-up box was one of Fay’s prized possessions, was notably successful while her mother and aunt Lena performed a comic double act as Bunty and Bijou.
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By chance Bijou was responsible for Fay’s professional debut during a holiday she spent with her in Glasgow aged 15. Her partner in the Empress Theatre unexpectedly fell ill with Fay having to replace her at short notice. The audience reacted well, she pocketed £5 a week and her career was launched.
Aged 16 she was one of the youngest artistes to entertain wartime troops when in 1945 she and her mother sailed on the SS Otrano to Bombay with 5,000 soldiers, a trip punctuated by regular deck musters for torpedo and depth charge drills. They spent six months performing to great acclaim, were awarded Honorary Chindits badges by General Wingate’s padre, and also visited Afghanistan.
On her return she appeared as the lead in Waltzes from Vienna, starred at the London Palladium as leading lady, appeared in cabaret in New York where she met Frank Sinatra, ‘stood in’ for Dame Vera Lynn, toured Kenya during the Mau Mau unrest, Cyprus during the EOKA crisis, and Aden, Malta and the Middle East with Stanley Baxter as she established herself as a household name in entertainment.
On 17th March 1958 at Kilmaronock Church near Drymen, Fay married charismatic Highland Games champion, Jay Scott, described as Scotland’s Wedding of the Year. After living on his family island of Inchmurrin, Loch Lomond, they moved to a lochside house as Jay completed his Duck Bay Marina development.
Misfortune struck when their new house was burned down and later Jay was involved in a serious tractor accident causing life-changing injuries when farming near Aberfoyle. Adding to their misfortune, Fay then sustained significant facial injuries in a car accident. The couple moved to Portobello where they ran a guest house as Fay taught drama at Queen Margaret’s College while continuing her stage career.
Jay died in 1997 after nearly 40 years of happy marriage during which they had children Shona and Robert.
Fay moved to Peebles where she became involved with the Eastgate Theatre and gave classes in elocution, deportment, singing and piano, continuing her lifelong love of theatre. She delighted in entertaining visitors with concerts on her piano, ‘Roland’, later moving to a care home near her daughter.
Despite misfortunes, she led an active purposeful life, always outgoing and engaging, enriched by memories of a multi-faceted stage career fuelled by consummate professionalism and delight in the limelight.
She is survived by her children, three grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
JACK DAVIDSON
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