| Biography | Gladys Ripley (9 July 1908 21 December 1955) was an English contralto. She was born in Forest Gate, Essex, the daughter of Alfred and Amy Ripley, and was educated at St. Edmund Roman Catholic School, East Ham, and at Clark's Business College.
In 1925, she gave her first important concert, singing Elijah at the Royal Albert Hall conducted by Albert Coates). Ripley broadcast continually from 1926 in a variety of programmes: opera, oratorio, musical plays, and light music. She sang with all the leading orchestras, under conductors including Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent, Thomas Beecham, Charles Thornton Lofthouse, Serge Koussevitzky, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Victor de Sabata.
Ripley appeared with the Royal Choral Society and other principal societies. She also performed at major festivals: Three Choirs Festival, Three Valleys Festival, Norwich Festival, and Leeds Festival.
Before the Second World War, she sang for six seasons at the Royal Opera House. In 1940, she toured New Zealand as a guest artist for the New Zealand Centennial celebrations. During the war she sang for the troops frequently, visiting France in 1940, West Africa in 1942, and Belgium and Netherlands in 1945.
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