Tony Gurrin obituary

Through his work at the National Film School (now the National Film and Television School) my father, Tony Gurrin, who has died aged 89, ensured that sound played an important narrative role in his students’ films. He also laid the groundwork for what would come to be called “sound design” – the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating and generating sound for television, film and theatre.

The youngest of five children, Tony was born in Kilburn, north-west London, to Laurence Gurrin, a translator, and Rufina (nee Dodwell), a housewife. After leaving Wimbledon vollege he joined the Royal Engineers at the end of the second world war, and helped build loudspeakers for use on the battlefield. Thus began a lifelong obsession with sound and its reproduction.