Mr Richard Leslie Burnett (Dick) was a National Service subaltern in The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, who was a fine concert pianist and later assembled one of the world’s most famous collections of keyboard instruments.

Educated at Eton, he studied at The Royal College of Music before starting his National Service. After training, he was commissioned into the Royal Leicestershire Regiment in January 1953, and joined the 1st Battalion in Iserlohn.

He served as a rifle platoon commander in B and D Companies, and was a very good rifle shot.

He had a sharp wit, always had a twinkle in his eyes, enjoying pranks and practical jokes. On one occasion, after drinking in one of the favourite bars, he appeared on the stage juggling some of the bar’s crockery.

On another occasion he had to be dissuaded from copying a visiting circus performer who had been walking a tightrope across a square in the town. He had a piano in his bedroom in the Officers’ Mess but when some brother officers pushed him, playing it, along the corridor the senior officers below were not amused.

After his Army service, he started collecting historic keyboard instruments and developed an instrument restoration business.

He was a sensitive and thoughtful pianist, and by the 1960s he was playing at Wigmore Hall. In 1971 he and his wife bought Finchcocks in Goudhurst, Kent, which was a nearly derelict Grade I listed building. They soon built up a team of ten craftsmen, and his collection of instruments grew.

He loved playing early music on original instruments, and enjoyed teaching, lecturing, writing and broadcasting about them and encouraging the young. In 2016 they downsized, but retained 14 classic instruments in their new home.

He was appointed MBE in 2008 for services to music. He and his wife regularly attended the annual Regimental Officers’ Luncheon in London.