Percy Lithgow (1918—2005)
Oboist and composer

An oboe player and aspiring composer, Percy Lithgow claimed to have seen a mermaid in 1948 while camping on Codfish Island with his companion, bassoonist Miles Sanderson.

Later that year Lithgow composed 'Soundings', his haunting suite for orchestra and solo bassoon, and the first composition by a New Zealander to make use of the pentatonic scale.

from A E Braithwaite (ed) Dictionary of Music and Musicians