Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936) was an English dramatic contralto and one of the most popular singers from the 1890s through to the 1920s.

Butt was educated at South Bristol High School, where her singing ability was recognised and her talent as a performer encouraged.

[3] Butt made her professional debut on 7 December 1892 at the Royal Albert Hall in London in Sullivan's cantata The Golden Legend.

[7] Bernard Shaw, who was then the music critic for The World, wrote that she "far surpassed the utmost expectations that could reasonably be entertained", and forecast a considerable career for her.

[3] The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns heard her, and wanted her to study his opera Samson et Dalila, but at the time the representation of biblical subjects on the British stage was forbidden, and nothing came of it.

[11] Butt acquired a reputation in Britain for her vocal attributes and her physical presence on the concert platform: she was 6 feet 2 inches tall.

[16] On 24 March 1900 Butt performed at the Bournemouth "Winter Gardens" with the baritone Kennerley Rumford,[17][18] and they were married in Bristol on 26 June 1900.

[3] That year she sang four performances of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Covent Garden, with Miriam Licette, under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham.

[7] Clara Butt performed 110 times at the Royal Albert Hall in her career, organising many important fund-raising concerts for charities during the First World War.