William Cox-Ife was born in 1903. He trained at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied conducting with Sir Henry Wood. Prior to World War II, he worked in the theatre and on BBC radio. During the war he served overseas in the Intelligence Corps, and from 1946 arranged scores for light operas and revues on BBC television. Cox-Ife joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as chorus master and assistant musical director from 1950 to 1961. On March 24, 1968, he was killed when the airliner he was in crashed into the Irish Sea near Pembrokeshire, Wales.
