William Hargreaves (1880–1941) was a British composer, mainly of songs for the music hall. His most famous composition was '" Burlington Bertie from Bow" in 1916 but he also wrote "Delaney's Donkey", "I Know Where the Flies Go", "PC 49", "We All Went Marching Home Again", "They Built Piccadilly For Me" and "Give My Regards to Leicester Square". Hargreaves is also sometimes credited with several songs for Billy Williams, including "Postcards" (1908); and "I Must Go Home Tonight" (1909). His "It's The Old Army Game" was added to the originally American musical ''

Poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug o ...

'' when it was performed in London stage in 1924. He was married to the American singer and male impersonator

Ella Shields Ella Shields (27 September 1879 – 5 August 1952) was a music hall singer and male-impersonator. Her famous signature song, " Burlington Bertie from Bow", a parody of Vesta Tilley's " Burlington Bertie", written by her manager and first husba ...

from 1906 to 1923, when she was granted a divorce. Hargreaves wrote "Burlington Bertie from Bow" for Shields;''The Times'' (London, England), 8 May 1923, p. 5 an earlier song with a similar title had been sung by

Vesta Tilley Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece (13May 186416September 1952) was an English music hall performer. She adopted the stage name Vesta Tilley and became one of the best-known male impersonators of her era. Her career lasted from 1869 until 19 ...

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1880 births 1941 deaths English songwriters {{UK-composer-stub