Frank Cordell

Frank Cordell (1 June 1918 – 6 July 1980)[1] was a British music composer, arranger and conductor, who was actively involved with the Institute of Contemporary Arts. He also wrote music under the name Frank Meilleur or Meillear (Meillear being his mother’s maiden name). He was born Frank Cordell in Kingston-upon-Thames. His father was a doctor who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War. Frank had two sisters, and a brother who was a professional musician. Frank's brother, Sid Cordell, wrote music for some of the Hammer Horror productions filmed at Pinewood Studios. As a young teenager Frank worked briefly for Homfray & Company in the cotton mills in Halifax and the Midlands for a family relative, before returning to London. By age 14, he was a competent pianist. Cordell entered a city-wide London music contest and won a Melody Maker poll at the age of 17 for the most promising jazz pianist of 1935. This enabled him to secure a job as a sound man in one of the prestigious London Warner Bros. film studios.