Clara Butt

A cabinet card portrait of the English contralto Clara Butt (1872-1936), sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer. Blessed with remarkably imposing voice and a surprising agile singing technique, Sir Thomas Beecham once joked that ‘On a clear day, you could have heard her across the English Channel’.

On 26 June 1900 she married the baritone Kennerly Rumford and thereafter often appeared with him in concerts. The couple eventually had three children, two sons and a daughter. Besides singing in many important festivals and concerts, she was honoured with royal commands to appear before Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and King George V. She made tours of Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States and to many European cities. In 1920 she was created a Dame of the British Empire in recognition of the many concerts she had given on behalf of service charities during the First World War.

Dame Clara Butt died in 1936, age 63.

Photographed by Turner and Drinkwater of Hull.