Thomas William Barrett (1851 – 19 April 1935) was an English music hall comedian and singer, most popular at the end of the nineteenth century.

[2] On tour, he gradually developed a reputation as a comic entertainer, and made his first appearance in London at Harwood's Varieties in Hoxton in 1878, performing songs that he composed, notably "What a Fool I Must Have Been to Marry Jane".

[3] His other songs included "I've Got 'Em On", "The Marquis of Camberwell Green", "I've Been and Got Married Today", "I Don't Like London", and "Jolly as a Sand Boy".

[1][2] He is credited with being the first comic entertainer to perform in a deadpan manner, standing completely still and without a smile.

[1] He was a favourite of the artist Walter Sickert, who sketched him with the inscription: "For countless hours between 1885 and 1922 [he had been] cheered and sweetened by [Barrett’s] gentle and reticent wit [and] his exquisite and lovable personality.”[4] Barrett's style became less fashionable in the early years of the twentieth century, and he performed less often, but in the early 1930s featured as a member of one of Albert de Courville's Veterans of Variety shows, presenting stars of the 1890s.