{{Short description|Australian musician and composer}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2018}}

{{Infobox musical artist|image=File:Ruby_Davy.png|birth_date=22 November 1883|birth_place=Salisbury, South Australia|death_date=12 July 1949|death_place=Melbourne, Australia|occupation=composer, musician and educator|instruments=piano}}

'''Ruby Claudia Emily Davy''' (22 November 1883&nbsp;&ndash; 12 July 1949) was an Australian pianist, composer and educator. She was the first woman in Australia to receive a DMus degree.<ref name=adb/>

The daughter of William Charles Davy, a shoemaker and musician, and Louisa Jane Litchfield, a singer and music teacher, she was born in Salisbury, South Australia. Davy received a BMus and MMus from the Elder Conservatorium of Music. She also earned a diploma in elocution from the London College of Music. She became a fellow of Trinity College London in 1921, the first woman outside of Britain to receive that honour.<ref name=adb/>

She was composing short musical pieces at the age of seven, and by nine, she had already written a cantata. She soon established the Salisbury School of Music and began assisting her mother with teaching.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Ruby Davy |url=https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/people/dr-ruby-davy/ |access-date=2025-11-15 |website=History Hub |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1912, she taught theory and counterpoint as a temporary replacement at the Conservatorium. She moved to Prospect with her parents in 1920; Davy and her mother taught music there. After her parents died in 1929, she suffered a nervous breakdown and abandoned music and teaching for four years.

She moved to Melbourne in 1934. In the same year, she began giving lecture recitals on the radio and to various organisations there. She toured England, Europe, Canada and the United States in 1939. In 1941, she founded the Society of Women Musicians of Australia.<ref name="adb" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/davy/ |title=Ruby Claudia Emily Davy (1883-1949) Papers 1904-1947 |publisher=University of Adelaide}}</ref>

She composed ''Australia Fair And Free'' for voices and orchestra, which was performed in 1936 in Adelaide.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/davy-ruby-claudia-5918 |title=Davy, Ruby Claudia (1883–1949) |publisher=National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University |work=Obituaries Australia}}</ref>

Davy underwent a mastectomy in 1947 and died at home in Melbourne two years later; she was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.<ref name=adb/>

The Dr Ruby Davy prize for composition is awarded annually by the University of Adelaide.<ref name=adb>{{cite web |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davy-ruby-claudia-5918 |title=Davy, Ruby Claudia (1883–1949) |work=Australia Dictionary of Biography|access-date=11 June 2018}}</ref><ref>[https://arts.adelaide.edu.au/scholarships/prizes/ruby_davey_prize_composition.html The Dr Ruby Davy Prize for Composition] Elder Conservatorium, Faculty of Arts, The University of Adelaide. Retrieved 11 June 2018.</ref>

Rita M. Wilson's biography entitled "Ruby Davy: academic and artiste: a biography of Dr. Ruby Davy: Australia's first woman Doctor of Music." was published by the Salisbury and District Historical Society, South Australia, in 1995.

Fellow Australian composer Ernest Edwin Mitchell was a tutor.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58512361 |title=MISS RUBY DAVY, Mus. Bac. (Adel.) |newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide) |issue=57 |location=South Australia |date=31 May 1913 |accessdate=19 May 2024 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> thumb|right|composition from 1935

==Works== * Australia fair and free - words by Louis Lavater; music by Ruby C. Davy. *1934 Welcome to Australia [music] / words by William Cathcart; music by Ruby C. Davy.<ref>{{Citation | title=Welcome to Australia [music] / words by William Cathcart; music by Ruby C. Davy | author1=Davy, Ruby C | author2=Cathcart, William | year=1934 | publisher=Apostolic Church, Australia | language=English | url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-178540903 }}</ref> * 1935 Barcarolle for violin and piano * Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

== References == {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davy, Ruby Claudia}} Category:1883 births Category:1949 deaths Category:Australian women composers Category:20th-century Australian pianists Category:People from South Australia Category:20th-century Australian women educators Category:20th-century Australian women pianists