James Clifford Brown (1923–2004) was an English composer, former Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music and Organist at the University of Leeds.
His father Henry John Brown was an electrical engineer and later professional cellist while his mother Lois was a junior school teacher.
[2] James also had a brother named Tom being a chartered engineer and a sister called Dulcie who has been a civil servant, a missionary and a music teacher of cello and classical guitar.
[3][4] In 1941 he left Northgate School and won a choral studentship to St John's College, Cambridge, but his studies were interrupted by war service.
In 1951 he was asked by his friend Allan Wicks to write the music for the first major revival of the York Mystery Plays,[5] which were a triumphant success.