Donald Swann

Donald Ibrahím Swann
Swann at right with Michael Flanders, 1966.
Born	(1923-09-30)30 September 1923 Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK
Died	23 March 1994(1994-03-23) (aged 70) London, England
Occupation	Composer, musician and entertainer
Known for	Flanders and Swann

Donald Ibrahím Swann (30 September 1923 – 23 March 1994) was a Welsh composer, musician and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders.

Donald Swann was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. His father, Herbert Alfredovich Swann, was a Russian doctor of English descent, from the expatriate community that started out as the Muscovy Company. His mother, Naguimé Sultán Swann (born Piszóva), was a Turkmen-Russian nurse from Ashgabat, now part of Turkmenistan. They were refugees from the Russian Revolution. Swann's great-grandfather, Alfred Trout Swan, a draper from Lincolnshire, emigrated to Russia in 1840 and married the daughter of the horologer to the Tsars. Some time later the family acquired a second 'n' to their surname. His uncle Alfred wrote the first biography of Alexander Scriabin in English.

The family moved to London, where Swann attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and Westminster School (where he first met Michael Flanders).

In 1941 Swann was awarded an exhibition to Christ Church, Oxford, to read modern languages. In 1942 he registered as a conscientious objector and served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit (a Quaker relief organisation) in Egypt, Palestine and Greece. After the war, Swann returned to Oxford to read Russian and Modern Greek.