born Sept. 21, 1874, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Eng.
died May 25, 1934, London
British composer.
The son of an organist, he studied at the Royal College of Music. There he met Ralph Vaughan Williams , who became a friend for life. He made his living first by playing trombone, then as a teacher. Always frail, after a collapse in 1923 he gave up teaching to devote the rest of his life to composition. His most popular piece is the vividly orchestrated suite The Planets (1916); other works include the charming St. Paul's Suite for strings (1913), the Hymn of Jesus (1917), and the Choral Fantasia (1930).