Alfred George Wathall (30 January 1880, Bulwell – 14 November 1938, Chicago) was an English-born American composer, music arranger, orchestrator, violinist, and music educator. He is best remembered as a composer of operettas of which his most successful were The Sultan of Sulu (1902) and Sinbad the Sailor (1911).[1] The Sultan of Sulu was staged on Broadway at Wallack's Theatre where it had a successful run in 1902–1903. It used a libretto by George Ade and was produced by Henry W. Savage.[2] He was also a composer of several Christian hymns.[3]
Wathall was educated at Northwestern University School of Music (now Bienen School of Music) where he was a pupil of Peter Lutkin (music theory and composition). A violinist, he later taught on the faculty of that institution as a professor of violin.[4] A longtime resident of Chicago since the age of 12, he was employed as a music arranger and orchestrator for WGN (AM) in Chicago for many years.[5]