Douglas Gordon Lilburn ONZ FRCM (2 November 1915 – 6 June 2001) was an influential New Zealand composer.
He was born in Wanganui, New Zealand. He attended Waitaki Boys' High School from 1930 to 1933, before moving to Christchurch to study at Canterbury University College (then part of the University of New Zealand) (1934–36). In 1937 he began studying at the Royal College of Music, London. He was tutored in composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams and remained at the College until 1939. The two men remained close: in later years Lilburn was known to send Vaughan Williams gifts of New Zealand honey, knowing that the older man was fond of it.
Lilburn returned to New Zealand in 1940 and served as guest conductor in Wellington for three months with the NBS String Orchestra. He shifted to Christchurch in 1941 and worked as a freelance composer and teacher until 1947. Between 1946 and 1949 and again in 1951, Lilburn was Composer-in-Residence at the Cambridge Summer Music Schools.
During these years he was heavily involved in New Zealand arts activity, and became friends with other artists such as Allen Curnow, Denis Glover, Rita Angus, and.