Charlotte Alington Pye Barnard was an English poet and composer of ballads and hymns, who often wrote under the pseudonym Claribel. She wrote over 100 songs as well as two volumes of verse, and became the most commercially successful balled composer managed by her publishers Boosey's, with whom she established one of the first royalty arrangements.
Life
Charlotte Alington Pye was the daughter of Henry Alington Pye, a solicitor and Charlotte Yerburgh. She married Charles Barnard in 1854: though he was parson of St Olaves in Ruckland, Lincolnshire, they lived at The Firs in Westgate, Louth, Lincolnshire. After Charlotte's presentation at court in 1856, the couple moved to Pimlico. Among their neighbours was the conductor Michael Costa. In London she studied music with the pianist W.H. Holmes and the singer Charlotte Sainton-Dolby. On 8 July 1847, Charlotte laid the foundation stone of Louth railway station. In a visit back to Louth in 1862, Charlotte wrote 20 Spring Songs and sang some of her own compositions at a concert held to clear the debt on the new east window of St James' Church, Louth. A stained glass window in her memory now stands at the west end of the church. By 1864, she had moved to Kirmington rectory as her husband had been appointed Rector of Brocklesby with Kirmington. A prolific balladeer and hymn-writer, Barnard had her first public success as a composer in 1859 with the ballad 'Janet's Choice', written for Charlotte Sainton-Dolby. She is probably best known for 'I Cannot Sing the Old Songs', 'Bide A Wee', 'Won't You Tell Me Why, Robin?', 'Five O'Clock in the Morning', 'Mountain Mabel' and 'Come Back to Erin'. She was also the composer of the hymn tune 'Brocklesby'. In 1868 it was discovered that her much respected father had been systematically stealing money left in his care and trust. He fled to Belgium with his second wife. Charlotte joined him there with her husband but returned to England at the beginning of 1869 for a holiday, when she became ill and died after a short illness from typhoid fever.
