Is there some confusion here between two composers with the same name? I had always assumed that John Barleycorn, the children's opera, was composed by the English composer Bruce Montgomery (aka Edmund Crispin). There are certainly other references on the web to that effect, though they could easily be wrong. The one thing that makes me think it more likely is that the opera was published by Novello, which also published other of the British Montgomery's works. I can't see any similar references (other than this one) to it being composed by the American Montgomery. Does anybody know?