| Anne Geddes Gilchrist | |
| Honorific Suffix: | O.B.E., F.S.A |
| Birth Date: | 8 December 1863 |
| Birth Place: | Manchester, England |
| Death Date: | 24 July 1954 |
| Occupation: | Folk song collector |
Anne Geddes Gilchrist OBE FSA[1] (8 December 1863 - 24 July 1954)[2] [3] was a British folk song collector.[4] [5] Although less well-known than her London-based counterparts, her expertise was acknowledged by Cecil Sharp, Lucy Broadwood, and John Masefield.[6]
Anne Geddes Gilchrist was born in Manchester, to Scottish parents. She had a musical upbringing and was related to Rev Neil Livingston, who compiled a psalter. After meeting Sabine Baring-Gould she became involved with folk music and joined the editorial board of the Folk-Song Society in 1906.[7] She had an unusually good memory for hymn tunes, one of her areas of expertise. Gilchrist is a neglected figure because she did not write any books. Instead she contributed many scholarly articles to the Journal of the Folk-Song Society.[8]
In the very first edition of the Journal of the Folk-Song Society she wrote an article on the song Long Lankin. She reports that a woman in Northumberland used to frighten children by shouting "There's Long Lankin". Gilchrist collected songs from Scotland and the north-west of England. This was particularly valuable, as few folk-song collections had been made from that part of England. Following the discovery of a medieval sculpted stone in Cumberland, she was admitted to the Society of Antiquaries in 1935, at the age of 70.[9] [10] She was awarded the OBE in 1948 for her services to folk song and dance.[11] Her last scholarly article was written at the age of 79. Her papers are lodged in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.