George Butterworth

Among the many talented young Britons who perished on the battlefields of World War I, George Butterworth (1885-1916) is the most prominent composer. Butterworth's music was played by the school orchestra at Eton when he was still a student there. Destined for a career in law, Butterworth abandoned it for music after coming in contact with composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and folk song collector Cecil Sharp. Butterworth is best known for his orchestral rhapsody A Shropshire Lad (1912) and his song settings are among his best works. A lieutenant in the British Army, Butterworth died fighting in the Battle of the Somme.