Coates, Eric (1886-1957), was an English composer, conductor, and viola player. He is best known as a composer of light music that reflected the popular dance and band music of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Several of his works became theme songs for popular British radio programs. Coates composed more than 160 songs along with orchestral suites, marches, and waltzes. Among his most popular light works are the Merrymakers Overture (1923), the London Suite (1932), and the march from the motion picture The Dam Busters (1955). He also wrote ballets, including The Jester at the Wedding (1932).
Coates was born on Aug. 27, 1886, in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. From 1912 to 1919, Coates played viola in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra directed by the English conductor Sir Henry Wood, who presented several of his early compositions. Coates had to give up the viola in 1919 because of a chronic nerve inflammation. He died on Dec. 23, 1957.
