According to the Guardian obituary for Barbara Kirkby-Mason on Wednesday 15th March 2000, generations of young people from the 1950s to the 1980s would have been familiar with Kirkby-Mason piano tutors. Many of her own compositions were included in her piano tutors. Her tutor books were called the Modern Piano Course and the Guardian states the pieces selected were ‘chosen to give the beginner keyboard freedom; they were original and fun to play’. Her pieces included the understanding of the use of the triad in classical composition. Many of her pieces had titles which portrayed her sense of fun. Examples of these are The Hobby Horse, Catch Me If You Can, A Fairy Lullaby and Happy Song. She believed that the notes should be printed large so that children did not have to quint to look at the music.
Her piece Lullaby: No. 2 from Second Album was in the ABRSM Grade 1 piano syllabus in 1989 and her Mango Walk was in the Trinity College Grade 1 syllabus in 2018 - 2020.
Kirkby-Mason’s parents were married on 20th July 1904 at the Holy Trinity Church in Upper Tooting. Her father is aged 30 years old, a bachelor and is working as a commercial traveller. His father Thomas Mason, is also a commercial traveller. Kirkby-Mason’s mother is Mildred Mary Edith Floyd, aged 24 years old, a spinster and her father, George Floyd is a grocer. Her father is one of the witnesses and two other witnesses are M M Mason and L E Kirkby.
Kirkby-Mason had a sister, Margery Kirkby, born on 27th September 1906 and baptised at the Holy Trinity Church, Upper Tooting on 6th January 1907. Her father, Charles Kirkby Mason is a commercial traveller. Margery Kirkby-Mason was one of the foundation members of the Latino and Albino Breeders Society which promoted the breeding and exhibiting of lutino and albino budgerigars.
Barbara Kirkby-Mason was born on the 7th March 1910. Her paternal grandmother’s maiden was Kirkby.
In the 1911 Census Barbara Kirkby-Mason, her father Charles, her mother Midred and her sister Margery are living at 38 Louisville Road, Upper Tooting. The house has four rooms. Her parents have been married for six years, they have had two children both of whom are living. Her father, who was born in Edinburgh is a commercial traveller selling wire and galvanised products.
Royal Academy of Music. By Philafrenzy - Own work, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14579823
Kirkby-Mason studied at the Royal Academy of Music in the 1920s and won medals, in particular, the Sterndale Bennett prize for her playing of Mozart. At a later stage she studied under Harold Samuel, a renowned Bach pianist and she commenced composing in 1931. Samuel encouraged her to compose.
Kirkby-Mason’s father died on 12th August 1928 and in his will he leaves £6295 1s 4d.
In 1933 she began a career on the BBC as a solo recital pianist and this she would have continued had she not married in 1940 and started a family.
In the 5th January 1933 Times paper there is an entry for the that day under Home Stations where Barbara Kirkby-Mason is part of an organ recital where Kirkby-Mason is playing the pianoforte. And in the Derby Daily Telegraph she is shown as playing at the same time on the 4th January 1933.
When the 1939 Register was conducted, Barbara Kirkby-Mason was staying at a hotel in Seaton, Devon. She is listed as a professional musician.
Her husband, Kenneth Lambert was at the time of their marriage a clergyman, but later on he became an analytical psychologist. He was educated at Oxford where he studied philosophy, politics and economics. He read his divinity degree at Oxford and was ordained into the Church of England. He worked in various parishes and this is where he became interested in pastoral psychology. During WW2 he served as chaplain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in India. It was after WW2 that he left the Church.
Kirkby-Mason married Kenneth Charles Lambert on the 27th April 1940 at the Christ Church, Sutton in Surrey. She is listed as being 30 years old, a musician and her father, Charles Kirkby-Mason (deceased) was a manufacturing agent. Her mother is one of the witnesses.
There is a entry in the Cheltenham Chronicle dated the 17th May 1947 reporting on the Music Competitive Festival held at the Cheltenham Town Hall. Under the Certificate Awards, Kirkby-Mason’s Under the Willow from My First Tunes is used as a test piece for the age group, seven and under eight years old.
My First Tunes was published in 1936 and the poems were written by Margaret Lyell.
In the Times, 1st March 1952 there is a notice for a Two-Piano Recital at the R.B.A. Galleries, Suffolk St off Haymarket for the following Thursday 6th March. She is playing with Ferdinand Rauter and included in the works they are playing are the Brahms-Haydn St Anthony Variations, Bach’s Sonata in E flat and the first London performance of Dohnanyi’s Suite en Valse.
After her marriage she did continue to give recitals, however her work as a composer, lecturer and adjudicator became her main focus. She contributed to the Piano Teacher Magazine ABRSM piano examination notes. I found one that she had written for the syllabus in 1982. Between 1931 and 1983, she published more than 70 piano publications. The gave lecture tours in the UK as well as in other countries. She continued teaching and lecturing well into her later years. In December 1996 she had a severe stroke and she died on 31st January 2000 at the age of 89.
References
Ancestry.com
www.theguardian.com.news/2000/mar/15/guardianobituaries1