Eric Coates

COATES, Eric [formerly Frank Harrison Coates]. b. Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, 27 August 1886; d. Chichester, 21 December 1957. Educated at the Royal Academy of Music (1906-08), Coates began his career as a viola player in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra (1910-18) until his dismissal forced him to earn his living as a freelance composer of light-orchestral music. His orchestral music has become amongst the most popular of the 20th century and included the marches Knightsbridge (London Suite), Calling All Workers and the Dambusters’ March, and the valse serenade By the Sleepy Lagoon. He died in hospital at Chichester. His first attempt at hymnody was with the unpublished ‘Hymn for the workers’,...