People69App2

Appendix 2   More biographical details of the dancers in the 1910 team photograph

The 1910 photograph is thought to be the earliest one of the Abingdon morris.  Its date has been the subject of discussion over the years, but it can be no later than August 1910 when the fiddler Tommy Boswell / ‘Gypsy’ Lewis died, and the most probable date is June 1910, when there was a press report of dancing at the June Fair.  Combining the reports of Jonathan Leach and Keith Chandler, the personnel in this photo were:

  • Dancers: James Hemmings, Tom Hemmings (son of James), Joe (Jack) Hemmings (son of James), Robert Henry (Bob) Martin, George (Stodger) Hudson and his brother Albert (Bertie) Hudson.
  • Sword and box: William Hemmings (at that date Mayor of Ock Street), also described as Billy Hemmings the ‘King of Ock Street’.
  • Horns: William (Willie) Belcher
  • Mace: John (or Jack) Hemmings (son of William)
  • Fiddler: Thomas Boswell / ‘Gypsy’ Lewis

 

William Hemmings (1849-1930)

Second son of Thomas Hemmings, who he succeeded as Mayor of Ock Street in 1885 (on his father’s death).  He married Eliza Stone at Sutton Courtenay in 1870 and they had at least 5 children, of which one was Ernest John (b 1884) who was the John / Jack who was macebearer in the 1910 photo, and who died in action in 1918.  In the 1871 census William was listed as a railway porter, Eliza as a needlewoman.  In the 1881 – 1911 censuses he was listed as a bricklayer, and later became a gardener.  In most censuses he is living in Ock Street but in 1891 he was living in Drayton Rd, Sutton Wick with his wife and children.  Maybe the fact that he was not living in Ock Street at the time is why Cox won the Mayor of Ock Street election in 1893.  His wife Eliza died in 1892 and in 1902 he married Ann Badcock, a widow.  In the 1911 census he was living in Ock Street with his second wife Ann, stepson Tom Badcock (18) and son John (Ernest John) 25.  He was a dancer and also a musician, playing the melodeon and concertina.  After becoming Mayor of Ock Street he was sometimes referred to as ‘Billy Hemmings, King of Ock Street’.  At one time he lived at 147 Ock Street, close to the Happy Dick pub (no 143), later moving to Mayott’s Road.

In 1909, Mary Neal of the Esperance Club in London first heard of the Abingdon morris from someone she met at a talk she gave, and wrote to William Hemmings as the “oldest member of the family said to be the keepers of the old tradition”.  He could not read or write but got someone to write back to her, saying “I am that party that has the old dances and I shall be proud to show them to you”.  As Mary Neal describes in the Esperance Morris Book, when her friend Mrs Tuke and she arrived by train, William was waiting for her at the station.  He proudly conducted them through the town to the Happy Dick in Ock Street, very pleased with himself that, contrary to what many had said to him, this was not a hoax.  At the Happy Dick he had the use of a small room where he played the tunes and described the dances.  He was invited to go to London to teach the dances to the Esperance girls, and he took his younger brother James on this trip.  They apparently spent a week there, and were provided with plenty of beer.  William and James were invited to London again in May 1910 to participate in a concert in Kensington Town Hall.  This seems to have spurred William and James to get a team together for the St Edmunds Fair in June 1910.

In April 1910, Cecil Sharp visited William and James Hemmings but did not at that time get enough information to publish any Abingdon dances in his first edition of the Morris Book.  The brothers were visited once again by Sharp in September 1922 and this time he managed to collect some dances and tunes.  He later presented the Abingdon Princess Royal dance to a meeting of the English Folk Dance Society in November 1922, at which he took a collection to buy a concertina for William Hemmings, who had gone blind and fallen on hard times.  One of the metal end plates of this Jeffreys anglo concertina is inscribed “Presented to WILLIAM HEMMINGS by the English Folk Dance Society November 1922”.  This concertina, originally in the keys of F and Bflat was totally refurbished and retuned to the more morris-friendly G and C in 1997 and is still occasionally used to play for the team.

William continued to decline in health and fortune, and some time in the 1920s his daughter Nellie wrote to Mary Neal asking if she could send her father a “Christmas Box” even if it was only a small postal order.  Mary Neal passed this letter on to the folk collector Clive Carey and it is now in the Vaughan Williams Library – in her covering note Mary Neal says that she has sent “the awful old cadger” 3 shillings.  The North Berks Herald of 17th January 1930, page 5, reported William’s recent death aged 82 at the Abingdon Poor Law Infirmary (i.e. the workhouse at Boxhill, off the Oxford Road, which closed shortly afterwards).

 

James Hemmings (1854 – 1935)

James Hemmings was the fourth son of Thomas Hemmings.  In 1875 he married Caroline Randall, and they seven sons and four daughters.  In most censuses he is recorded as living in Ock Street but in the 1901 census he is living with his family in Edward Street.  In his later life he lived at 123 Ock Street.  In the 1871-1891 censuses he is listed as a wool draper, a general labourer and a fellmonger (dealer in hides and skins) working for the Pavlova Leather Company.  He eventually had his own business and, in contrast to his brother William, seems to have been relatively prosperous.  He was a dancer in the pre 1900 team and appears in the 1910 photograph as the lead dancer.  He accompanied his brother William on visits to London organised by Mary Neal in 1909 and 1910, and he was also present when Cecil Sharp came to Abingdon in 1910 and 1922.  Two of his sons, Joe (who died in 1916 on active service) and Tom (who later danced in the 1930s and became Mayor of Ock Street ), appear as dancers in the 1910 photograph.  Two more of his sons were later to associate themselves with the Ock Street morris: James (who was generally a non-dancing member in the 1930s and up to 1954) and Charles (who was landlord of the Happy Dick in the 1930s and father of Ray, who became Mayor of Ock Street in 1961).

In September 1929, James Hemmings was created Mayor of Ock Street in a ceremony in the back yard of the Cross Keys.  Photos of this event were taken by a London agency (Fox) and appeared in the Daily Mirror and Birmingham Daily Gazette.  His brother William was by that time probably terminally ill (he died either in January 1930 or December 1929).

James Hemmings died in January 1935 aged 80; his death was reported in the North Berks Herald of 18th January 1935 (p1).  The article lists the chief mourners and also says that had he lived until 17th January, he and his wife would have been married for 60 years.

 

Tommy Lewis / Tommy Boswell (‘Gypsy Lewis’)

A Romany, born Thomas Boswell, son of Lewis Boswell (1788-1860), at Hagbourne, Berkshire, on 6th February 1838 (he was baptized there).  On his father’s death in 1860 he changed his name to Thomas Lewis to honour his father’s memory.  His father Lewis was an accomplished fiddler, travelling the village feasts, and he passed this skill on to his son.  Tommy Boswell is recorded as playing the fiddle for Bampton morris between 1862 and 1870.  He is the fiddler in the 1910 photograph of Abingdon morris and it is very likely that he also played for Abingdon in the team that performed up to 1901.  He was often referred to by them and their succesors as ‘Gypsy’ Lewis.  In later life he used the title ‘King of the Gypsies’, something that both his father and great-uncle had done earlier.  He is said to have had 36 children by his three wives and others.  His wives were his cousin Luvi (Lovinia) Smith, later Emma Lee and Kunsaleti (Councelettie) Smith.  He was what is known as a short traveller, i.e although not living in one place, he did not travel very far.  In fact he seems to have mostly camped in Berkshire (as it was at the time), including at East Hagbourne, Stanford in the Vale, Wantage, Denchworth, West Lockinge and West Challow.

He appeared in the local Berkshire press from time to time for minor crimes such as being drunk and disorderly, fighting, camping on the public highway or private land, stealing wood, etc.  In these reports and other documents between 1860 and 1901 he is described varously as a travelling basket-maker, knife-grinder, tinker, brazier, tin-man, hawker, brickmaker’s labourer, general dealer, traveller with coconut shy, musician and ‘strolling player’.  He wouild play his fiddle for village dances and in pubs, and claimed to have attended Buckland Club Feast for 40 years.  When he played fiddle for Abingdon he would sometimes camp ‘in the Canal Road’ and was reputed only to perform in Ock Street, never in the town centre.

Tommy Lewis died at West Challow on 5th August 1910, following a short illness.  His funeral on 8th August in West Challow is recorded in the North Berks Herald of 13th August 1910 and also in less detail in the Reading Mercury of the same date, and attracted a large number of mourners and interested onlookers from Wantage.  His claim was that he never slept in a bed in a house during his life, only in a tent or a caravan, though occasionally he was obliged to sleep in a prison cell. 

Further references:

 

Tom Hemmings (son of James)

Tom Hemmings (1887-1960) was a dancer in 1910 and quite possibly in the earlier team around 1900 as a boy.  He was one of the main driving forces behind the revival of Abingdon morris that started in 1935, being Lead Dancer in 1937-39, during the second world war and 1949, and was Mayor of Ock Street 1950-1960.  His full biographical details are in the section on the 1930s team.  He would have been 23 in the June 1910 photo.

 

Joe (Jack) Hemmings (son of James)

Joseph Hemmings (known as Joe or Jack) was born in Abingdon in the 3rd quarter of 1891.  In the 1901 census he was aged 9 living in Edward Street with his parents James and Caroline and 7 siblings.  In the 1911 census he was a lining cutter in a clothing factory aged 19, living at 123 Ock St with his parents and siblings.  In February 1916 he joined the 8th  Royal Berkshire Regiment and was killed in action in Contalmaison, France  on 22nd July 1916. He is buried in Ovillers military cemetery, Somme, France.  He would have been 18 in the June 1910 photo.

 

Robert Henry (Bob) Martin

The Bob Martin that is dancing in the 1910 photo is the son of the Robert Henry Martin who was probably a dancer in the pre-1900 team.  He was born in Abingdon in the 1st quarter of 1883, and in 1901 is listed as serving in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, aged 18, possibly in action in the Boer War. In 1911 he was a farm labourer aged 28 living with his parents Robert Henry and Jane and 5 siblings.  In 1914 his address was 9 Cemetery Road and he served in the Royal Berkshire Regiment in France from August 1914 to September 1918, returning wounded.  According to a  letter written by Francis Fryer he was still alive in 1939 but did not want to talk about the morris dancing.  Slim Mooring said he remembered Bob Martin as a nice old man who lived opposite him in Saxton Road, and had gone blind. He would have been 27 in the June 1910 photo.

His father, also Robert Henry Martin, was born in Abingdon in the 3rd quarter of 1860, was in 1911 a bricklayer’s labourer living in Ock Street with his wife Jane and family, and died in 1933 aged 73.  He was a similar age to James Hemmings and his brothers who danced in the pre-1900 team and it is quite likely that this older Robert Martin also danced in that team.

 

George (Stodger) Hudson 

Odlly enough there were two different George Hudsons living in Abingdon at about the right time and with a brother called Albert.  It is most likely that the George Hudson dancing in the 1910 photograph is the George Frederick Hudson who was born in Abingdon in the 3rd quarter of 1872, the son of Henry and Sarah Hudson.  In 1881 he was aged 9 living with his family in Ock Street and in 1891 he was a general labourer aged 19 living with his family in Ock Street which now included his younger brother Albert (born 1884).  In 1901 he was a carter on a farm living in Ock Street with his wife Beatrice and 4 children and in 1911 he is a horseman on a farm living in a Court of Ock Street with his wife and 5 children.  He would have been 37 in June 1910 when the photo was probably taken.  In 1914 his address was 6 Thames Street and in August 1914 he joined the Royal Navy.  He was killed in a shipping collision on 16th June 1916 and is buried in Ste. Marie cemetery, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France.

There was another George Hudson born in Abingdon in 1873 who was the Happy Dick landlord in the 1901 census and was still the licencee of the Happy Dick in 1920.  His wife Lottie or Lillie would have been the Mrs Hudson that acted as Mary Neal’s host and contact when she met William and James Hemmings in 1909.

 

Albert (Bertie) Hudson.

George Hudson’s younger brother Albert was born in the 1st quarter of 1884 to Henry and Sarah Hudson of Ock Street.  In the 1901 census he was a 17 year old fruiterers labourer, living in Ock Street with his mother Matilda who is still married but now head of the household.  In 1911 he was a farm labourer aged 27, living with his widowed mother Sarah Matilda.  He would have been 26 in the June 1910 photo.

He would have been one of the two Albert Hudsons recorded in the Abingdon Roll of Honour as having served in World War One:

  • Albert Hudson of 186 Ock Street, Royal Berkshire Regiment September 1914 to February 1916, France, returned wounded
  • Albert Edward Hudson of 13, Court 24 Ock Street, 5th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment 1915 to June 1917, France, returned wounded

 

William (Willie) Belcher

No less than three William Belchers were born in Abingdon at about the right date (1880-1890), but the one most likely to have been the dancer in the 1910 photograph is the one born around 1880 to parents Wellington and Mary and living with them in Ock Street in 1891. He was about 30 in the June 1910 photo.

He would have been one of the two William Belchers recorded in the Abingdon Roll of Honour as having served in World War One:

  • William Belcher of 6 Bury Street, Labour Corps August 1915 to February 1919, France.
  • William George Belcher of West St Helen’s Street, Royal Berkshire Regiment November 1914 to February 1919, France, Belgium, Germany, returned wounded.

His nephew, also William Belcher, was the son of George and Sarah and also lived in Ock Street in his grandparents’ house, but by 1911 he had moved to Derbyshire with his widowed mother and had become a coal miner.

 

John (or Jack) Hemmings (son of William)

Born Ernest John Hemmings in the 4th quarter of 1884 to William and Eliza Hemmings in Abingdon, he was the macebearer in the 1910 photograph.  In 1891 he was aged 6, living in Sutton Wick with his parents.  In 1901 he was a 16 year old fishmonger’s assistant living in Ock Street with his widowed father and brother Edmund.  In 1911, now just called John, he is an ironmonger’s fitter’s labourer aged 25, living in Ock Street with his father William and stepmother Anne.  He would have been 25 in the June 1910 photo.

In 1913 he married Helen Badcock and in 1916 he was living at 38 Winterbourne Road when in October he joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment.  He was killed in action in France on 23rd October 1918, only a few weeks before the end of the war.  He is buried in Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau, Nord, France.

 

References

 

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