George Butterworth is perhaps mostly remembered for the fact that his life was cut short at the Battle of the Somme. He left behind not only his own compositions, but a vast collection of folk songs and dances which he collected alongside his friends Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp.
Butterworth’s ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ is strongly linked to the loss of the composer and many of his generation in World War I and is seen by some as an anthem for all 'Unknown Soldiers'.
Image: photographer unknown - Photograph first published in the George Butterworth Memorial Volume, privately printed in the UK, 1918
