On this day 13 August, 1919
By Sally Sellers
13 August 1919: The blind jazz pianist George Shearing was born in Battersea. His family lived at 67 Arthur Street, later renamed Rawson Street, now demolished. The railway ran at the back of their house near Latchmere Road.
George studied music for four years at Linden Lodge School for the blind at the corner of Dents Road and Bolingbroke Grove, now Northcote Lodge Prep School. There is a Battersea Society plaque honouring him on the building. Composer of the jazz standards ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ and ‘Conception,' he performed for three US presidents with his sextet and their trademark ‘Shearing sound’.