Doris Arnold

{{Short description|British radio presenter, producer, pianist.}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2014}}

Doris Grace Arnold (4 November 1904 – 5 October 1969) was a BBC Radio presenter and producer, and a pianist.

Born in Wimbledon, Surrey, in 1904, Arnold joined the BBC in 1929, as a typist.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19691006&id=BZJAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=A6UMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4394,1025414|title=Doris Arnold B.B.C. Producer|date=6 October 1969|work=Glasgow Herald|accessdate=30 July 2014}} She first appeared on air as a stand-in for a pianist who was unwell. She married fellow pianist, BBC producer and songwriter Harry S. Pepper, and the two would perform piano duets together on air.

As presenter of the programme These You Have Loved, in which she played and talked about light classical recordings, she was one of the BBC's (and thus the United Kingdom's) first female disc jockeys.{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/garlands/54.htm|title=A Further Addendum To The Garlands Of British Light Music Composers|last=Scowcroft|first=Phil|work=Musicweb International|accessdate=30 July 2014}} She also arranged music for male voice choirs.

In 1934, she featured on a cigarette card, in the Wills series Radio Celebrities.{{cite web|url=http://scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10422389|title=Image of 'doris arnold', cigarette card. wills' cigarette card, from 'radio celebrities', 1934.|work=Science & Society Picture Library|accessdate=30 July 2014}} She also appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 25 September 1967.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y2jv#p009y2jv |title=Desert Island Discs - Doris Arnold |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |accessdate=27 April 2020}}

Arnold died in 1969 at Denham, Buckinghamshire.