John Ayldon - Telegraph His rise was rapid. After starting as a rank-and-file policeman in The Pirates of Penzance in 1968, within two years he was not only promoted to Pirate King in the same show, but also served as Emperor of Japan in The Mikado. Life with the D'Oyly Carte was intense, with the company often on the road for 48 weeks of the year. Ayldon, like many members, had several roles in his repertory at any one time, including Sir Roderic Murgatroyd (Ruddigore) and Sir Marmaduke Poindexter (The Sorcerer), and gave up to 350 performances a year. Nevertheless, the family atmosphere meant that many singers remained with the company for long periods of time - Ayldon believing himself to be only its fourth principal bass since the D'Oyly Carte was founded in 1875. Blessed with a wide schoolboy grin and a spark of mischief, Ayldon tended towards roles which demonstrated a degree of villainy. He also had an ability to ad lib when things went wrong - such as the occasion when, as Sergeant Meryll in The Yeoman of the Guard, his moustache came adrift and blew out like a banner as he sang "Rapture, Rapture"; or when, as Colonel Calverley in Patience, he danced awkwardly with Lady Angela because his braces had broken. Although the critics had little good to say about the D'Oyly Carte in its last couple of decades, Ayldon's voice did occasionally attract their attention, with Alan Blyth recording how, as Mountararat in Iolanthe in 1975, Ayldon "magnificently projects his patriotic song [When Britain Really Ruled the Waves]." He was born John Arnold on December 11 1943, later changing his name to Ayldon because another Equity member was known as John Arnold. At the age of 11 he moved with his family from London to San Francisco, where he soon caught the acting bug. By his mid-teens he had appeared in the title role of a television production of Huckleberry Finn. Back in England in 1958 he finished his schooling and took various jobs in advertising and with a shipping line. Before long he was invited to join Eltham Little Theatre, when the company needed an extra policeman for its Pirates; soon he was appearing in other amateur and semi-professional productions, where he gained a good knowledge of the G&S repertoire. It was while appearing in one of the Eltham company's shows almost a decade later that Ayldon was spotted and invited to audition - successfully - for the chorus of the D'Oyly Carte. When Donald Adams, the company's principal bass-baritone, left in 1969, Ayldon, despite his lack of music college training, was promoted to take on his roles including, in 1977, a part in the Silver Jubilee command performance of HMS Pinafore for the Queen at Windsor Castle. Although the D'Oyly Carte closed in 1982, Ayldon continued to find work, both in G&S and beyond. He appeared in The Phantom of the Opera and Which Witch in the West End; took part in various D'Oyly Carte revivals and tributes (including G&S à la Carte with Kenneth Sandford and Geoffrey Shovelton, his colleagues from the D'Oyly Carte); and sang Major Murgatroyd in a concert performance of Act II of Sullivan's Patience at the Proms in 1988. There were also appearances at the Wexford Festival (in Smetana's The Kiss) and at the annual International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, Derbyshire. He was blessed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of theatre, film and opera - especially Verdi and Donizetti - and maintained a strong affection for, and occasional correspondence with, Joan Sutherland and Leontyne Price. He was also a fine cook, often touring with a mobile kitchen. John Ayldon is survived by Guy Matthews, his partner of the past 38 years. They entered into a civil partnership in 2007. John Ayldon, born December 11 1943, died February 16 2013