Composer Nicholas Lloyd Webber, eldest son of Andrew Lloyd Webber, has died in hospital aged 43.

Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote on Saturday evening: “I am shattered to have to announce that my beloved elder son Nick died a few hours ago in Basingstoke hospital. His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft.”

Born in 1979, Nicholas Lloyd Webber followed his father and grandfather into the music business and worked on feature films and short films, in television and on a number of theatre productions.

Nicholas Lloyd Webber, 1979–2023

In 2005, he produced the West End revival of The Woman in White, which featured music by his father. The production was a commercial success, running for over a year. He also created a theatrical and symphonic version of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novel The Little Prince in a 2009 collaboration with James D Reid.

In 2015, Nicholas teamed up again with his father to produce School of Rock: The Musical, which premiered on Broadway and proved a critical and commercial success, earning several Tony nominations.

Nicholas scored the 2021 film The Last Bus and collaborated with his father on the...