George Butterworth (1885-1916)

English Composer

Location of plaque: Driffield Terrace

On August 5, 1916, a young army officer from York was shot through the head by a German sniper while serving on the front line.

A month earlier, George Butterworth had been awarded the Military Cross for the 'great coolness' he had shown when his company commander was wounded. The citation said he had displayed a 'total disregard of personal safety.'

He was in charge of a group of men digging a trench under heavy German fire when he was shot. He was, his CO later wrote, 'cheery and inspiring his men to secure the position which had been won earlier.'

The sniper's bullet was no respecter of good cheer or bravery, sadly. And nor was it any respecter of musical talent. Because George Butterworth was not only a courageous soldier - he was also a gifted composer.

A friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams he had already, in his too-short life (he was just 31 when he was killed) set 11 songs from AE Housman's hugely-popular A Shropshire Lad to music, and had also composed several idylls.

A founder member of the Folk-dance society, he had also collected together more than 450 traditional folk songs. He was for a while employed as a professional Morris dancer to demonstrate some of these.

Butterworth had been born in London. But the family moved to York when he was six years old: his father, Sir Alexander Butterworth, had begun work as solicitor for and then general manager of the North Eastern Railway. The family lived on Driffield Terrace in a house which now forms part of The Mount School.

After his death, George's body was never recovered, though his name is on the Thiepval Memorial which commemorates the Somme. The plaque is at his childhood home on Driffield Terrace.

Stephen Lewis

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