Alan Styler
Alan Arthur Styler (1 October 1925 – 1 September 1970) was an English opera singer best known for his baritone roles in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. After serving in the Grenadier Guards during World War II, he joined D'Oyly Carte in 1947 and spent about twenty years with the company. His main parts included the Counsel in Trial by Jury, Strephon in Iolanthe, Pish-Tush in The Mikado, Giuseppe in The Gondoliers, Mr. Cox in Cox and Box, Grosvenor in Patience, and the Lieutenant of the Tower in The Yeomen of the Guard. He recorded most of these roles.
Styler was popular with audiences and with his fellow company members. He married fellow D'Oyly Carte player Veronica Cross, who used the stage name Vera Ryan, in 1960, and they had three daughters. He was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Arthur Styler and Madeleine (née Cook), with a sister Iris and a brother John.
He studied singing as a teenager and joined the Grenadier Guards at seventeen. After leaving the service in 1946, he joined the D'Oyly Carte chorus and quickly moved up to principal roles. From 1949 he frequently filled in as the Counsel, Strephon, Pish-Tush, and Giuseppe, and also regularly performed Mr. Cox and Grosvenor. In later years he added Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, Florian in Princess Ida, and Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance. Illness interrupted him in 1952 and again in 1962–63; after a lung operation in 1968 his doctor advised retirement. He died in Manchester in 1970 at the age of 44, remembered as a charming, enthusiastic performer.
A memorial service for Styler was held at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. His record catalog included Pish-Tush (1950, 1958), Giuseppe (1950, 1961), Strephon (1952, 1960), Grosvenor (1952), Cox (1961), Doctor Daly in The Sorcerer (1966), and a noted performance of Giuseppe that reviewers praised for its clear voice and diction.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:41 (CET).