Augustus Barratt

Walter Augustus Barratt, professionally known as Augustus Barratt, was born on 3 June 1873 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, the son of composer John Barratt. The family subsequently settled in Paisley. In 1893, Barratt earned a scholarship in composition to the Royal College of Music. By his mid-twenties he had contributed three original song compositions and numerous arrangements to The Scottish Students' Song Book, and by the close of 1897 had published dozens of songs, among them Sir Patrick Spens and The Death of Cuthullin, as well as an album of his own compositions and arrangements of ten songs by Samuel Lover. That same year, in London, he married Lizzie May Stoner.

While living in London, Barratt turned his attention to staged musical comedy, collaborating with Adrian Ross on The Three Dumas Skiteers, a skit based on Sydney Grundy's The Musketeers that starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree. He then co-composed Kitty Grey (1900) with Howard Talbot. His songs continued to attract recognition: the 1901 and 1902 BBC Promenade Concerts included four of his compositions — "Come back, Sweet Love," "The Mermaid," "My Peggy," and "Private Donald." His setting of "My Ships," a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, was performed by Clara Butt, republished multiple times, and featured in the 1913 and 1914 Proms with four different singers.

In September 1904, Barratt emigrated to New York City, where he established himself as a performer, composer, and musical director on Broadway. His first stage appearance in America came that same year, when he played Sir Benjamin Backbite in Lady Teazle (1904–1905), a musical adaptation of The School for Scandal. He served as musical director of The Little Michus (1907), a production that also featured songs of his own, and co-composed Miss Pocahontas (1907), a musical comedy. He went on to direct The Love Cure (1909–1910) and The Quaker Girl (1911–1912) as musical director. In 1912 he served as both co-composer and musical director of My Best Girl. Further musical director credits followed with The Sunshine Girl (1913) and The Girl Who Smiles (1915). He contributed music, lyrics, and musical direction to Her Soldier Boy (1916–1917).

The year 1918 proved particularly productive for Barratt on Broadway. He composed, wrote lyrics for, and directed Fancy Free, which featured a book by Dorothy Donnelly and Edgar Smith. That same year he composed and directed Little Simplicity, with book and lyrics by Rida Johnson Young, and contributed lyrics to The Melting of Molly. He also contributed a song to The Passing Show of 1918. In 1920 he served as musical director of What's in a Name?, a musical revue.

Although based in the United States, Barratt made several return visits to England. During an extended stay in 1921 he played a central role in two productions mounted by producer Charles B. Cochran: League of Notions, presented at the New Oxford Theatre, for which he composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics with John Murray Anderson; and Fun of the Fayre, at the London Pavilion, for which he similarly composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics. Returning to Broadway, he served as composer and lyricist of Jack and Jill (1923), a musical comedy, and later as musical director of The Silver Swan (1929).

In his later years Barratt directed his creative energies largely toward radio, writing plays and operettas including Snapshots: a radioperetta (1929), Sushannah and the Brush Wielders (1929), the series The Magic Voice (1933), Men of Action (1933), Say, Uncle (1933), the drama Sealed Orders (1934), and Sergeant Gabriel (1945), co-written with Hugh Abercrombie.

On the personal side, Barratt's first marriage ended in divorce in 1915. He and Lizzie May Stoner had two children: a son, Walter Alfred Barratt, born in 1900, and a daughter, Margery May Barratt, born in 1901 in Teddington. In 1918 he married Ethel J. Moore, an American. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1924. Barratt died on 12 April 1947 in New York City.