Willo and Felix were married on June 1st 1944. Five days later, Willo, as a member of “Phantom” (UK Special Forces), attacked the Normandy beaches in the second wave of British landing craft to hit the beaches. Later Willo was awarded an MBE for his courage and leadership. In 1966, Willo won a US Emmy Award, as the writer and narrator of “Wyvern at War”, a documentary about the 43rd Wessex Division’s heroic fighting, and appalling casualties, in the six weeks after the Normandy Invasion. For many years, Willo was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company while also acting in numerous London West End stage shows, TV shows and major movies such as his part as the evil Dr Mortner (Willoughby Gray) in the James Bond film, A View to a Kill. Willo was also a fine artist and his paintings of his interpretations of the characters from JRR Tolkien’s, Lord of the Rings, were exhibited at London’s famous Tate Gallery. Felix was a well-known principal ballerina for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet), and was the first western ballerina (1952) to receive a standing ovation from a Russian audience when she danced at the magnificent Kirov Opera House in St Petersburg. During the early German bombing of London in 1940, Felix refused to cancel her ballet performances and continued to dance nightly as an act of defiance to the German “blitz” and as a morale booster to the citizens of London. Later, Felix’s BBC TV show, Ballet for Beginners, which she conceived of, narrated and starred in, became a household name in the UK. Willo and Felix are Dickon Pownall-Gray’s parents and are an artistic and moral inspiration to Dickon and to his wife, Alice Pownall-Gray.
