Helen Clare (born Nelly Harrison; 29 November 1916 – 15 September 2018) was a British singer who was well known in the 1930s and 1940s through her work in variety, radio, television and recording. Clare worked extensively in light entertainment, appearing on BBC Radio and recording with British dance bands. Her distinctive soprano voice saw her working with some of the biggest names of the era, including bandleaders Jack Jackson and Henry Hall. She was one of the last surviving professional singers who had been active in the 1930s.

Nelly Harrison was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, on 29 November 1916, during the First World War, and had an older brother, Tom. Aged four, she moved to Australia with her family, who settled in Burswood, a suburb of Perth. She began performing in cinemas, often dressed to look like Baby Peggy, a popular child star in Hollywood, and progressed to appearing in pantomimes in Perth, as well as Australia's major population centres of Melbourne and Sydney. Billed as "Little Nellie Harrison – Child Wonder", Harrison performed grand opera arias, such as the "Jewel Song" from Faust for Dame Nellie Melba, who she duetted with.

Harrison's voice brought her to the attention of the critics and audiences, with Melba remarking, "this voice must be preserved and not be used for years to come". A 1926 Sydney Opera House production of Aladdin was reviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald, in which it was noted that Harrison won applause from the audience. Harrison, "a diminutive child-prodigy, sang fluently and correctly, with shades and roulades, all in a tiny voice, the valse-air from Edward German's comic opera Tom Jones", the review added.

Following the Wall Street crash in 1929, and the subsequent Great Depression, Harrison and her family returned to Yorkshire, living in Shipley, outside Bradford. After leaving school, she worked as a costing clerk in a raincoat factory, but sang in clubs during the evenings. She also appeared with her brother Tom Harrison's band in Bradford. "Unlike their usual singer, I didn't need a megaphone", she said.

Harrison began getting bookings in the North of England, and, having been offered an audition by Eric Maschwitz, the then-Head of BBC Variety, she started to broadcast for the BBC North region in 1934. In the mid-1930s, Harrison joined Conri Tait's Orchestra, who appeared at the Grand Hotel in Harrogate.

By 1936, she was broadcasting under her stage name, Helen Clare, which she would be billed as this from this point on. In February 1937, she began broadcasting throughout Britain on the BBC National Programme with Jack Jackson's band, who were resident at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Jackson had spotted her the previous year, and Clare became a household name, taking bookings from the Radio Normandie, Lyon and Luxembourg stations. Whilst there, she was befriended by a young Danny Kaye, who was appearing in cabaret at the hotel. Clare began appearing on BBC Television when the medium was still in its infancy, becoming one of the first female singers to appear on the small screen in 1937.

That year, she sang George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away from Me" in Cabaret Cartoons, a television programme produced by Cecil Madden. On 22 June that year, she made her recording debut at a Rex session with Jay Wilbur and his Band, when Clare sang a duet with Jack Cooper, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", which had been introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film Shall We Dance. She made several more recordings with Wilbur's band, and also broadcast with him.

On 26 November 1937, she made her first recording with Jack Jackson and his Orchestra at a Decca session in which she sang "I'm a Little Prairie Flower" as part of a vocal ensemble with Jackson, Jackie Hunter and Jack Cooper. In December 1937, the Popular Music and Film Song Weekly wrote of Clare: