Francis Purcell Warren (29 May 1895 – circa 3 July 1916) was a British violinist, violist and composer who was killed in World War One.
[3] In the summer of 1914, before conscription was compulsory, Warren volunteered for war duty, joining the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a private.
After a short spell in France he returned to England and joined the 10th South Lancashire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant.
His surviving works include the short motet Ave Verum, published by Richards & Co in 1912,[5] the Benediction Service (1912, held in the British Library), the Five Short Pieces for Cello and Piano (Curwen, 1914)[6] and the Variations on an Original Theme (originally the final movement of his String Quartet in A minor), composed circa 1914 and posthumously published by Cramer in 1927.
Cobbett described it as "a powerful and deeply moving piece, in which an almost prophetic foreboding seems to colour the spacious phrases".