Kathleen Ferrier was born at Higher Walton, near Blackburn, on April 22nd, 1912. During her early years in Blackburn, she competed in amateur music festivals for gold medals, cups and rose bowls, and also worked on the switchboard at the local telephone exchange. It was not until 1940 that she had her first singing lesson under Dr. J. E. Hutchinson, and from 1943 until 1950 she was a student of Roy Henderson. In 1947, at the first Edinburgh Festival, she appeared in Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" with the revered Bruno Walter, who considered her one of the greatest singers of her generation. In the New Year's Honours list of 1953 she was made a C.B.E.

By then she was a nationally acclaimed star, but sadly, illness was to bring her successful career to an untimely end. John Barbirolli, a very great friend, had arranged for her to sing in Gluck's "Orpheus" in four performances at Covent Garden in February 1953. During the second act of the second performance her leg gave way, but, supporting herself on a balustrade, she sang through to "Che faro." That was her last public engagement; the rest was a story of pain and sickness. On October 8th, 1953, this most marvellous Lancashire lady died."