Biography

1932-1998
Fred Kent made an outstanding contribution to the recording, processing and publication of Scottish traditional lore, song and music over a period of 33 years. After secondary school at Trinity Academy, Edinburgh, he became a Post Office engineer, a position to which he returned briefly after two years of National Service with the RAF as an air wireless mechanic. In 1954 he joined the BBC as a sound engineer, and then, after a further couple of moves, he became chief technician of the Sound Laboratory at the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.