Edward Maurice Besly (1888 - 1945) was an English composer, conductor, schoolteacher, organist, and arranger best known for his popular ballads, The Second Minuet and Time, You Old Gipsy Man.
More ambitious vocal pieces were the Four Poems Op 24, Charivaria (5 songs), and his setting of Christina Rossetti's The shepherds had an angel for soprano solo and chorus.
After a short stage career he studied music at the Leipzig Conservatorium under Teichmüller, Schreck, and Krehl.
He also composed the musical plays For Ever After, Luana and Khan Zala and edited the Queen’s College Hymn Book.
His motet O Lord, support us, a setting of a prayer by St John Henry Newman, is still frequently sung in Anglican Cathedrals.