GLYN Townley, who has died in Durban at the age of 100, was a South African concert pianist of international standing who gave a recital at the Queen's Hall in London during World War 2 while air-raid sirens warned of approaching German bombers.

The audience gave him a standing ovation, "the sort of cheer they reserve for Sir Henry Wood on the last night of the Proms", commented a newspaper review afterwards.

In a raid a few days later, the Queen's Hall was flattened.

Townley was born Ivor Glyn Williams in Durban on December 18 1911, the son of a prominent medical doctor. He changed his name when he became a professional pianist.

He matriculated at Durban High School. His father wanted him to be an accountant, but he won so many awards for his piano playing that after a year at Deloittes he was given one year in which to prove he had what it took to follow a music career.

After studying with Isador Epstein in Johannesburg, Townley studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with the legendary pianist known universally as Solomon.

His official debut as a soloist in London was at the famous Grotrian Hall in 1935 where, among other pieces, the young musician played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Townely lived in London during the blitz, and was lucky to survive a direct hit on his house, which covered his beloved Steinway grand piano in debris but didn't destroy it. He defied the warnings of air-raid marshals to re-enter, at his own risk, they made clear, the ruins of his house and retrieve it, with the help of intrepid rubble removers.

In 1941 he returned to South Africa to enlist, but was declared medically unfit because of a recurring duodenal ulcer.

Townley, who said he realised as he got older that one could do anything one wanted to, decided, when he got back to England, that he wanted to be a professional ice-skater. This he proceeded to do. Then he decided to be a swimmer, and won the silver medal of the Royal Lifesaving Society.

Then he went back to being a concert pianist. He gave recitals and played with orchestras all over South Africa, where he became a household name, Europe and Australia, in all the most famous venues and under the baton of world-renowned conductors such as Sir Henry Wood, Janos Furst, Piero Gamba and Hugo Rignold. He lived and performed in Sydney for five years from 1951.

Townley had 30 piano concertos and 700 solo works in his repertoire. He estimated that during his career he travelled in more than 200 ships, mostly cargo vessels.

He gave his last paid recital at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre in Durban in 1982, at the age of 70. Thereafter he gave at least 700 recitals, free of charge, for senior citizens in retirement homes and villages around the country.

He gave up performing at 94, when he was still practising two hours a day.

Townley never married and had no children.