Editing Russ Conway (section)

==Early life==
Trevor Herbert Stanford was born on 2 September 1925 in [[Bristol]], England.<ref name="Larkin">Larkin C (1997) ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', Muze UK Ltd, {{ISBN|0-7535-0149-X}} p. 125</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Barker |first=Dennis |date=17 November 2000 |title=Russ Conway |url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/nov/17/guardianobituaries |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Guardian |location= London}}</ref> His mother, Patara Mallia (née Green) was an amateur pianist and contralto, and his father, Herbert Stanford, a clerical worker.<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |date=17 November 2000 |title=Russ Conway obituary |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1374480/Russ-Conway.html |access-date=24 August 2019 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London}}</ref> Stanford won a scholarship to [[Bristol Cathedral Choir School]].<ref name="Larkin" />

After leaving school, aged 14, he attended secretarial college before working as a solicitor's clerk.<ref name=":0" /> The employment ended when, on his fifteen birthday, Stanford was sent to a [[borstal|Borstal detention centre]] for a three-year term after stealing some money he found in a packet.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |date=17 November 2000 |title=Pianist with the golden smile |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1009840.stm |access-date=27 August 2019 |work=BBC News}}</ref> It was in borstal that he taught himself the piano.<ref name="Telegraph" /> A few months later, in January 1941, his mother died.<ref name=":0" />

Following his release from borstal, his father sent him to a Merchant Navy Training School.<ref name="BBC" /> During the [[Second World War]], in 1942, he was conscripted into the [[Royal Navy]]<ref name="Telegraph" /> and was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Medal (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Service Medal]] as signalman in a minesweeping flotilla "for distinguished service, efficiency and zeal" in clearance of mines in the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] and operations during the relief of Greece 1944–45. During his Navy service, he lost the tip of the ring finger of his right hand while using a bread slicer.<ref name="Larkin" /> At the end of the war, he chose to remain in the Navy, but was discharged in 1948 because of a stomach ulcer. He joined the [[Merchant Navy (United Kingdom)|Merchant Navy]] as a baggage steward with [[P&O (company)|P&O]], but left after a recurrence of the complaint.<ref name="Telegraph" />