The son of a senior police sergeant, his first music teacher was Hector Fleming, and Cecil gave his first performance on 30 September 1912 at the age of 19.
In 1918 he made his debut as an opera singer, under the stage name of Lionello Cecil, performing in the Storchi Theatre of Modena as Duca di Mantova (Verdi's Rigoletto).
In London, while he was on a concert tour, he married Argia Armanda Giustina Mattioni, a ballerina from Trieste, Italy.
[1] He sang leading roles in the first complete microphone recording of Verdi's La Traviata (Alfredo, 1928), and in Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton, 1929–30).
In July 1944 he made his last performance at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music where he played Canio in Pagliacci.