George Butterworth

George Sainton Kaye Butterworth (1885-1916) was an English composer, folk song collector, and country dancer, best known for his orchestral idyll 'The Banks of Green Willow' and song settings of A. E. Housman's 'A Shropshire Lad'. Born in London as the only child of Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth, he studied at Eton and Oxford, where he pursued music and collected over 450 folk songs with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp. He enlisted in World War I, earned the Military Cross twice for gallantry, and was killed by a sniper at Pozières during the Battle of the Somme on 5 August 1916 at age 31.[1][2][5]