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Rosemary Squires was born Joan Rosemary Yarrow on December 7, 1928 in Bristol, England. She took singing, guitar and piano lessons while at school at St Edmund’s Girls’ School in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Initially she entertained troops by singing on nearby UK and US Army bases around Salisbury. While maintaining a job in an antique book shop and office work, she sang with various groups and a Polish military band

Becaming a professional singer in 1940 Rosemary’s introduction was on the BBC Home Service’s Children’s Hour. She performed with the big bands of Ted Heath, Geraldo and Cyril Stapleton. She sang with the smaller jazz bands of Max Harris, Kenny Baker and the Alan Clare band. Moving from Salisbury to London in 1948 when she was twenty, by the 1950s and Sixties, she became a regular on the BBC Light Programme such as Melody Time and Workers’ Playtime.

She worked in the United States with Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as appearing on the Johnny Carson Show. She would go on to perform for Prince Edward, and toured twice countrywide during the 2012 Royal Diamond Jubilee.

Jazz, big band, cabaret and concert singer and recording artist Rosemary Squires, who was president of the Studio Theatre is Salisbury and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, died on August 8, 2023 at the age of 94.

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