William Hargreaves was an English composer, mainly of songs for the music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

. His most famous composition was Burlington Bertie From Bow

Burlington Bertie

"Burlington Bertie" is a music hall song composed by Harry B. Norris in 1900 and sung by Vesta Tilley. It concerns an aristocratic young idler who pursues a life of leisure in the West End of London....

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

Billy Williams (music hall performer)

Richard Isaac Banks , who changed his name to Billy Williams after leaving his birthplace of Australia, was one of the most recorded popular entertainers of his and indeed of all time. His recordings sold in their thousands long after his early death in 1915...

, 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

Poppy (1923 musical)

Poppy is a musical comedy with music by Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels, and lyrics and book by Dorothy Donnelly, with contributions also from Howard Dietz, W. C. Fields and Irving Caesar...

when it was performed in London stage in 1924.

He was married to Ella Shields

Ella Shields

Ella Shields was a music hall singer and male-impersonator. Her famous signature song, "Burlington Bertie from Bow", written by her manager and first husband, William Hargreaves, was an immediate hit. Though American-born, Ella achieved her greatest success in England.-Biography:Ella Shields was...

.