Old English composer welcoming warrant officer's motto
I believe the answer is:
byword
'motto' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'old english composer welcoming' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'wo' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'english composer' becomes 'byrd' (I've seen this before).
'welcoming' is an insertion indicator.
'wo' placed within 'byrd' is 'BYWORD'.
'warrant officer's' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for byword that I've seen before include "Person or thing cited as a memorable example" , "Person or thing spoken of as notable example" , "Well-known example of something" , "Memorable saying" , "Slogan; paragon" .)