Arnold Cooke (1906-1905) was a British composer born on 4th November 1906. As a child he learnt the piano and the cello and started composing at around the age of 7 or 8. He studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, gaining a degree in music in 1929. He then moved to Germany where he studied at the Berlin University of the Arts under Paul Hindemith, moving back to London in 1938. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Navy for the entire war. He then became Professor of Harmony and Composition from 1947 until 1978, when he retired but continued writing music uintil he suffered from a stroke in 1993, but living on for another 12 years.