George Butterworth(1885-1916)

George Butterworth was born in London on July 12th, 1885 to a well-to-do family. Eton School was followed by university at Trinity College, Oxford where he met Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp. He taught for a while at Radley, studied for a short time at the Royal College of Music, then concentrated more or less full time on collecting folk songs, sometimes with Vaughan Williams. When the First World War started in 1914, he joined the Durham Light Infantry as a Lieutenant. In the trenches, he was mentioned in dispatches for outstanding courage and won the Military Cross. He led a successful raid on August 15th 1916 in the Battle of the Somme, but during the raid Butterworth was killed by a sniper's bullet.