Sir Edward German (17 February 1862 - 11 November 1936) was an English composer best known for his operettas Merrie England andTom Jones as well as orchestral suites of light classical music derived from his scores to Henry VIII and Nell Gwyn.

German was born German Edward Jones in Whitchurch, Shropshire, England.  He attended the Royal Academy of Music as an accomplished violinist and later changed his focus to composition, studying under Ebenezer Prout.  He changed his name to Edward German while at the academy to avoid confusion with another student.  Following his time at the Academy, where he also taught as a sub-professor of the violin, German went on to become conductor and Musical Director of the Globe Theatre in 1888.  In this capacity, he conducted incidental music to stage productions and soon had the opportunity to write original incidental music and the overture to a production of Richard III.  Overtures and dances from his scores to plays such as Richard III and Henry VIII would go on to bring him further success in the concert halls.

Following the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan in 1901, German was selected to complete Sullivan's unfinished comic opera The Emerald Isle.  Though comic operas were in decline in favor of musical comedies, German's work was a relative success.  He followed this success with two more comic operas with Sullivan's librettist, Basil Hood.  The first of these was his arguably most famous work, Merrie England, set in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  This was followed by A Princess of Kensington a year later in 1903.  During this period, German also composed another of his most enduring works, Just So Songs, a collection of musical settings to the poetry from Sir Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.

German would write one more opera, Fallen Fairies, with Sir William S. Gilbert in 1909, but considerable tensions between the librettist and the producing syndicate as well as a difficult libretto would lead German to retire from full-time composition.  He would, however, produce a few more major works including a Coronation March and Hymn for the coronation of King George V in 1911, Theme and Six Diversions in 1919, and The Willow Song in 1922.

German was knighted for his services to music in 1928 and received the Gold Medical of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1934.  He died of cancer at his home of Maida Vale in London two years later.

A more extensive on-site biography may be published here in the future. At the present, biographies on Sir Edward may be found from the following:

• Wikipedia article--This is the most readily available up-to-date biography.
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians contains an entry on Sir Edward by Dr. David Russell Hulme, widely considered the leading musicologist on the composer.
• A Musical Peacemaker: The Life and Work of Sir Edward German by Brian Rees--This is the most extensive biography, published in 1986 and reissued in 2003 by Kensal Press. ISBN 0946041490.
• "Edward German: A Biographical Sketch" from the January 1, 1904 issue of The Musical Times.  This gives an excellent contemporaneous look at the earlier parts of the composer's life and career.
• Edward German: An Intimate Biography by William Herbert Scott--This is an earlier biography, written in the composer's lifetime. It was published in 1932 by Cecil Palmer.

The following video by cam3media on YouTube provides some biographical information and some interesting interviews. It was filmed at the 2006 festival.