Alan Rawsthorne (1905–1971) was a British composer born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and later buried in the churchyard at Thaxted.

Roy Noakes’ bronze portrait of Rawsthorne is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Alongside it is a plaster death mask of the composer, made by Noakes at the request of Isabel Rawsthorne. Rawsthorne himself had kept a death mask of Chopin in his workroom, a detail that adds a poignant resonance to Noakes’ own posthumous study of the composer.