- One of the best known and most honored of all twentieth-century British composers, as acclaimed for his film and theatre scores as for his concert works.
- His wife was the Argentinian beauty, Susana Walton. The couple never had children, but lived together on an island in the South of Italy in their spectacular garden, La Mortella, until his death in 1983. Long after his death, Susana Walton held music master-classes there.
- He was made a Knight Bachelor in the 1950 King's New Year Honours List for his services to music.
- He was awarded the O.M. (Order of Merit) in November 1967 for his services to music.
- After a long absence from film work, he was hired to compose the music for Battle of Britain (1969). He composed a full score, but it was rejected by the producers, who then hired Ron Goodwin to compose an entirely new one. This cavalier act toward a distinguished artist so angered his friend Laurence Olivier, who played the largest and most important role in the film, that Olivier immediately demanded that his own name be removed from the credits of the film and from all advertising, refusing also to do any promotional work for the film. This so alarmed the producers that they eventually agreed to a compromise, whereby some twelve minutes of Walton's score were used on the soundtrack, with full credit.
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