CHANT, Laura Ormiston

Laura Ormiston Chant, née Laura Ormiston Dibbin, was an English writer, hymn author, composer, social reformer, and advocate for women’s rights and temperance. She was born on 9 October 1848 in Woolaston, Gloucestershire, and died on 16 February 1923 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Before becoming widely known as a lecturer and reformer, she worked as a governess and later as a nurse at the London Hospital. In 1877 she married the physician Thomas Chant. Orlando
Music formed a significant part of Chant’s varied creative work. She wrote hymn texts, hymn tunes, and songs for children, often combining music with educational or moral purposes. Her hymn texts include Beyond the Far Horizon, Light of the World, Faint Were Our Weary Feet, and Amid the Splendor of the Spring. Her tune ANNA GORDON, composed for O Paradise, Whose Holy Music Ringing, appeared in The White Ribbon Hymnal in 1892. Hymnary
Chant also produced several collections of “action songs” for children, in which simple songs were accompanied by prescribed physical movements and exercises. Her Golden Boat Action Songs for Children included pieces such as The Golden Boat, The Tree Song, The Raindrops’ Song, The Marching Song, The Cuckoo Song, and The Lullaby. These publications place her within the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century tradition of combining children’s musical education with physical training. National Trust Collections
Beyond music, Chant was a prominent public lecturer and campaigner on women’s rights, temperance, social reform, and social purity, and she published poetry, fiction, pamphlets, and speeches. Her literary and musical output therefore formed part of a broader career devoted to education and social change