Richard Corney Grain

Richard Corney Grain (26 October 1844 – 16 March 1895), known by his stage name Corney Grain, was an entertainer and songwriter of the late Victorian era.

Biography

Born at Teversham in Cambridgeshire, Grain was the youngest son of John Grain, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Anne. His sister, Harriet Ann, was the mother of the barrister and judge Sir Travers Humphreys. Grain received what he referred to as "an average middle-class education". In 1858, at the age of 14, he attended school in Germany. Returning to Britain with an interest in the Law, he enrolled as a student of the Inner Temple on 27 April 1863, and was called to the Bar on 30 April 1866. For a while he practised law on the Western Circuit. However, he had theatrical leanings, and sang and acted in private.

Career Deciding to give up a legal career and try his hand on the stage, on 16 May 1870 Grain joined what was known as the German Reed Entertainments, at the Gallery of Illustration, appearing in a sketch of his own called The School-Feast. At the same time, Grain entertained privately, performing his comic musical sketches at the piano for fashionable parties and other venues. Over twenty-five years, Grain wrote between fifty and sixty entertainments for the company, consisting of social sketches and songs with piano accompaniment. His songs included "The Masher King of Piccadilly" and "The Four-Horse Sharrybang". His private performances of comic sketches also remained fashionable throughout his career. His last sketch was Music à la mode. He also played in Gilbert's Our Island Home, Ages Ago and Eyes and No Eyes (amusingly, as Pierrot). Grain was a great friend and rival of Gilbert and Sullivan performer and fellow sketch-artist, George Grossmith.

His autobiography, Corney Grain, by Himself, first appeared in Murray's Magazine and was later issued as a book in 1888. He died of "epidemic influenza" on 16 March 1895, at his home in Marylebone, London. His death, six days after that of Alfred German Reed, ended the German Reed Entertainments, which had been popular for forty years.