Art de Graaf
May 9th 1933 — July 3rd 2002
Occasionally folklore fieldwork manuals advise the reader that he or she may become socially attached to their informants. This partly depends on one’s approach to the informant in the first place, of course, and it also depends on the general nature of the person being approached. Jack Fleetwood (1914–1998: see elsewhere on this webpage) was the son of a remittance man and was a first generation settler with a store of local lore and history. He became a good personal friend as well as being a generous supporter of the Society.
Art Degraaf also became a good friend in the very short time I knew him. He has sadly been taken from us far too soon. Following a stroke that led to complications Art passed away quietly in the early afternoon of Wednesday, July the third.
Others, elsewhere have written about and remembered Art as a husband and a father. They have spoken of his compassion, his caring nature, his intelligence and humour and his great mechanical skill. But to the Society he was also a brilliant folk artist with a refreshing lack of any pretensions and possessing a generous disposition.
The folk art aspect of his life was a recent development begun a little less than four years ago. It began with weathervanes, quickly branched out to include brazed manikins with metal-based, body-filler heads, and large, welded, machine abstracts and signs. These brightly painted larger pieces were (and are still) displayed fronting his property on the Lake Cowichan Hwy a couple of miles from the Island Hwy intersection. Their very presence was planned and guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of any passing traveler, an aspect that was typical of Art's generosity to his fellow man.
Art experimented with many other specifically folk art and generally artistic constructions including an extremely complicated box of wound spring gears and a number of simple and complicated wind-driven amusements and abstracts that are placed strategically round his garden again simply to please the passing eye.
Two years ago we included a visit to Art and Hilda in our Cowichan Valley Folklore Field Day. In our brochure we wrote, "Our main visit on the 29th of July will be to the home of Art Degraaf and his wife. Art was a mechanic for many years and is now retired. He has applied his fabricating skills mostly in iron, steel, and aluminium, augmented with found objects, to create spinners, whirligigs, weathervanes, gates, signs and other amusing sculptures — made ‘just for fun.’" I know that those who were able to attend found Art, himself, a delight and his artwork a great joy.
Both Art and Hilda shared some of their family folklore with us. Art’s Ketelbinkie, a song from his Navy days, and Hilda’s memories of Saint Nicholas’ Day traditions and recipes in North Holland appeared in Issue 15 of BCF, on pages 42-45 and 54-56 respectively.
In a few months the Society will be adding a folk art component to its website. Photographs of a number of Art's pieces will be featured there including a very fine weather vane, in the prairie style, made by Art, that Hilda has generously donated to the Society folk art collection as a memorial to Art and for our public displays.
Mike Ballantyne, B.C.F. No. 17, p. 3.
William John Hardy (Jack) Fleetwood
1914 - 1998
Jack Fleetwood was born on May the 19th, 1914, in the Cowichan Valley, and he remained there through the whole of his life. He had worked at a variety of jobs from delivery van driver for Frumento’s general store in Cowichan Station to log scaler for MacMillan Bloedel’s Shawnigan Division, and he had dedicated himself wholeheartedly to all his employment and personal endeavours.
His love of the Valley, his creativity, and his unabashed interest in everything around him can clearly be seen in the many articles he wrote for the local newspaper and for a number of magazines and journals, from the British Columbia Historical News to Business Logger.
To most people in the Valley he is probably best remembered either as a fount of local history or as a poet but he also touched many others through his involvement in a large number of local societies and organizations. Amongst these (and to name just a few) are the Native Sons of B.C., the Baden Powell Guild, the Cowichan Valley, Shawnigan, and Old Koksilah School Historical Societies, and he was a founding patron of the British Columbia Folklore Society. All these and quite a number of other organisations owe Jack an immeasurable debt of thanks for his generosity and support.
As a poet Jack’s works spanned almost the whole of his life. He wrote sincerely of incidents that were based upon personal experience and knowledge, and with an innocence and simplicity that is rarely seen. In some respects it can be compared with the poetry of Service and Swanson, but their works stem from a literary perspective that is one step removed from the daily reality that Jack lived and wrote about. Amongst his poems were some that had been written as songs that he had set to then popular music. One of these The Rum Runner's Song (1931) had originally been set to an Irish tune that has been forgotten through time. However, because of his involvement with the Cowichan Folk Guild, the song came to the attention of George Halkyard who wrote a new tune for it and subsequently recorded it with “Full Circle” - on their first recording “End of an Era” - and this song, with its music, was published in the Canadian Folk Music Bulletin June 1995, (Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 18-19).
In the last year or so of his life he had been severely afflicted with bone cancer and his last five months were spent in hospital. Throughout all his months of pain he nevertheless remained clear-headed and alert, and his visitors (of which he had an inordinate number) were always welcome. He passed away very peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of Friday morning, January the 2nd.
Through many hours spent with him, often with a tape recorder, he became a valued informant to the Folklore Society but he also became a very special and precious friend to me. He was always gracious and concerned about the interests of others and he is missed by a great number of family, friends, and acquaintances.
Mike Ballantyne, B.C.F. No. 8, pp. 2-3
Mabel Ada Fleetwood
June 30
The Society is saddened to report the passing on December 31st 2001 of Mabel Ada Fleetwood, beloved wife of Jack Fleetwood (1914-1998). Mabel’s father’s family, her grandfather, John David Chapman, had migrated from Ontario in 1885 and settled on Telegraph Road, Cobble Hill. They had built a house there but this burned down in 1893. Her mother was Bella Mae Cameron who later married William Thomas Chapman. She was nine when, with her father and brothers, she came out to Cobble Hill from Nova Scotia upon the death of her mother. Her father was John David Cameron, the Cameron of Cameron-Taggart Road, Cobble Hill. Mabel was born on June the 30th 1908 and raised at the Chapman family home. Her father turned out not to be very reliable and, as the oldest of four daughters, Mabel was thrown into taking care of her sisters at an early age. At 14 she was milking cows and shearing sheep, with the wool mainly being bought by the Cowichan Indians (Quw’utsun’ First Nations). Chapman Road and Chapman Motors in Cobble Hill are named for the family and their property. Later, as a young woman, Mabel was a bookeeper in Kitwanga for a short while. She and Jack met at a dance for visiting British Warships at the CAAC (Cowichan Amateur Athletic Club) hall on First Avenue, Cowichan Station. They were married in 1936. The Fleetwoods were generous supporters of the Society and contributed many hours of valuable taped interviews on cassette. Unfortunately these cassettes still languish, and are not transcribed due to lack of funding.
The following is Bella Mae Cameron’s Christmas Pudding recipe, copied out by her on June the 6th 1949. It is the only recipe used by Mabel Fleetwood and was passed down to her daughter Marie Skertchly who continued to use it until quite recently.
Mix all together. Tie in a cloth-covered bowl and boil for 2 or 3 hours.
Note: this is substantially different from (and much less complicated) than the Christmas Pudding Anne Ballantyne makes that also uses suet. Consequently Anne says she will be trying this one this year.
Mike Ballantyne, B.C.F. No. 17, p. 3.
William (Bill) Anthony Swithin Sarjeant
1935 - 2002
Bill was born on 15th July 1935 in Sheffield, England and married Peggy in April 1966. Following a career as an academic geologist at Nottingham University, he and his family immigrated to Canada in April 1972, where he took up a position as Professor of Geology at the University of Saskatchewan, a position he held until his passing. His research work focused on the study of marine microfossils and on the history of the earth sciences, fields in which he was widely published and professionally recognized. In later years he expanded his field of studies to include that of fossil footprints. In 1995 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada.
Outside the university Bill’s interest in detective fiction and Sherlockian studies led to the publication of numerous articles and to the co-authorship with Alan Bradley of “Ms Holmes of Baker Street.” Under the name of Antony Swithin, he wrote a fantasy quartet entitled “The Perilous Quest for Lyonesse.” Bill has also been active in many fields in Saskatchewan, particularly heritage preservation, chairing a committee for protection of historic buildings, co-authoring a book and editing the Saskatoon History Review.
Bill became interested in folk music in his student days, and was later active with the Nottingham Folk Club, and began what became an important collection of books and records. In Saskatoon he continued his passion for folk music, singing and playing his harmonica, and was an anchor member of the Prairie Higglers, which has continued for more than two decades with a varying personnel, andperformed extensively in Saskatoon and Regina. A double CD of the group was produced by Bill in memory of a former member, Hugh Hendry, and another was being completed by Bill at his death.
Bill played an active role in the Canadian Folk Music Society and its successors. He attending many meetings (including the one hosted by the BC Folklore Society in Duncan), served as its president and archivist, contributed many reviews and other articles to its publications, and took many photographs of singers and speakers for the record and publication. His extensive collection of folk music books and recordings is being deposited in the CSMT archive at the University of Calgary library.
Bill was perhaps happiest when singing in a small group, his huge repertoire refreshed from time to time from the old diaries in which he wrote his words, and embarking on long ballads, comic songs, and prairie folk material from his collection. It is appropriate that his funeral was followed by a gathering of friends on the lawn behind his house, who carried out one more of the many singarounds that have taken place there under Bill’s leadership.
David Spalding, August 2002. B.C.F. No. 17, p. 4.
Cyril Tawney
1930 - 2005
It is with the greatest sadness that we announce the passing, on April 21st 2005, of Cyril Tawney, English Songwriter and Traditional Singer, Naval Historian, Writer and Broadcaster.
Cyril Francis Tawney was born into a Naval family at Gosport in Hampshire on October the 12th 1930. He joined the Navy at 16 as an electrical artificer apprentice and served for 12 years on both surface ships, and on submarines upon which, to his surprise and contrary to his expectations, he found one did not need to be a volunteer. On Christmas Day 1957 he made his recording debut on the BBC Home Service programme ‘Sing Christmas’ which was released in 2000 as a CD by—and is still available from—Rounder Records.1 Songwriting, leading up to the immortal Naval ballads such as Sally Free and Easy (1958) and The Grey Funnel Line (1959), together with radio and television appearances prompted Cyril to buy himself out of the Navy on May the 3rd, 1959, to become a full-time professional musician. His first commercial recordings were in 1960 on two LP releases recorded by Peter Kennedy under the auspices of the EFDSS and included his, The Last Boat’s A’Leaving (Sammy’s Bar), on the E.M.I. 10” LP ‘Rocket Along’ (H.M.V. DLP1204), and his, On A British Submarine (Cheering the Queen) together with the traditional Tom’s Gone to Hilo, on the E.M.I. 12” LP ‘A Pinch of Salt’ (H.M.V. CLP1362). Both records, with two other folksong LPs in the same series, from the same year, are in the Society’s library as part of the Kenneth C. Savory Collection. They will be transferred to CD as soon as time allows. On May the 5th 1961 Peter Kennedy recorded 13 further tracks by Cyril [for the EFDSS, who released it on the L.P. DTS LFX 1]. These were: Lean and Unwashed Tiffy—A Ship Came Sailing—Chicken On A Raft—The Grey Funnel Line—The Man at the Nore—Sally, Free and Easy—Stanley the Rat—Pull the String—Six Feet of Mud—The Oggy Man’s No More—The Sailor Cut Down—Nobby Hall— Diesel and Shale, which he released on Folktracks 60-092.2 Recordings of these songs and many more are available on line at: www.cyriltawney.co.uk. Of his two books, one, Grey Funnel Lines, Traditional Song & Verse of the Royal Navy 1900-1970 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987) is available from the same website, and out-of-print listings for his other book, the Cyril Tawney Songbook (London: Gwyneth Music Ltd.) can be found, on line at: http://used.addall.com/. He was a popular singer at folk clubs and folk music festivals in Britain and abroad during his 45 years as a professional singer and songs of his—some of which have been assumed to be traditional—have the rare distinction of having been included in both The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse and The Oxford Book of Sea Songs. Further, both Sally Free and Easy and The Ballad of Sammy’s Bar can be found in Modern Folk Ballads (Causley 1966, pp. 42-44). In 1966 he married Rosemary Radmore, his wife of 39 years, who was often to be found in his company travelling to venues and who was by him in hospital to the end. I had the great good fortune to meet him in the middle 1960’s at a folk club he was running in Plymouth. Over the next few years I helped run folk clubs in Portsmouth and Edinburgh and booked Cyril to play on a number of occasions. It was at Plymouth that I first heard Cyril sing Brave Benbow and asked for the words and the background to the song. The song has served me well and has endured in my repertoire together with Cyril’s own Sally Free and Easy that I added soon after; it is a song that reflected more than a little truth on a personal level.
Cyril was a kind and gentle man of great good humour. He will be missed.
Notes:
1 With other performers including Shirley Collins, Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, Seamus Ennis, A.
L. Lloyd, Flora MacNeil, and others. Cost is US $15.98 CDROUN1850 0 11661 1850 2 9 available on line from
http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&catalog_id=4959
2which we also have a copy of, although it is, no doubt, still available from: Peter Kennedy, 16
Brunswick Square, Gloucester GL1 1UG, tel.: 01452 415110 email: peter@folktrax.demon.co.uk
Further Note:
A comprehensive discography of Cyril's recordings can be found
at http://goldilox.co.uk/engfolk/, with track
listings.
References:
CAUSLEY, Charles.
1966 Modern Folk Ballads. London: Studio Vista Limited.
PALMER, Roy.
1986 The Oxford Book of Sea Songs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
TAWNEY, Cyril.
1987 Grey Funnel Lines, Traditional Song & Verse of the Royal Navy 1900-1970.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
n.d. Cyril Tawney Songbook. London: Gwyneth Music Ltd.
WOODS, Frederick.
1983 The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Mike Ballantyne. B.C.F. No. 20, pp.2-3
Thanks to Rosemary Tawney for additions and corrections to this web version.
Phil Thomas
PHILIP JAMES THOMAS
March 26, 1921 - January 26, 2007
I’ll also miss Phil Thomas, whom I met in 1960 not long after he and a few friends had founded the Folk Song Circle in Vancouver. I was keen to bring my versions of Scottish songs to Canada, but I was intrigued and charmed to find indigenous songs here - though of course I wasn’t surprised. Phil and his wife Hilda sang songs I’d never heard before, including on Hilda’s part some songs about Feminism, which was just beginning to raise its head above the parapet.
A review of the second, expanded edition of his songbook is to be found below, and I include a copy of one of my all-time favourite songs from PJT’s collection, with a note of its original tune. A very good obituary ran in the 3 February, 2007 edition of the Vancouver Sun, page H11.
Some of his contributions to folk music publications are: Canadian Folk Music - Bulletin de musique folklorique Canadienne 37.4 (Winter 2003), pp. 10-15, “’D’ye Ken Sam Hughes?’ and Two Other Songs from the Great War, 1914-1918”. (These appear in the second edition of his book, reviewed below.) He has an article “The Louis Riel Song’: A Perspective” in CFMJ 21, pp. 12-18, followed up in CFMJ’s successor, the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music / Revue de musique folklorique Canadienne 24 (1996), pp. 56-60, “’La lettre du sang’/ ‘Chanson de Louis Riel’: Addenda”.
In BCF, appear “Edith Fowke” (obituary), 2.2 and “My Limerick Question”, 9.18; see also M. Ballantyne’s note on his biography & Heritage Award in 3.2, and being awarded the Marius Barbeau Medal, 18.2.
There are also the several contributions to Come All Ye, the magazine of the Vancouver Folk Song Society (the catchy title was his suggestion). These ranged from reviews to articles about songs he himself collected, e.g. “Where Grampa’s Gone” [collected song and note] III.11 (Nov. 1974), 11-12; “British-Canadian Folk Music in B.C.” IV.11 (Nov. 1975), 210-214 [includes “Teaming up the Cariboo Road”]; “’The Dodger’ – Where Are Its Roots?” VI.12 (Dec. 1977), 201-209. [I hope to print an updated version of this article at some point.]
Murray Shoolbraid, BCF #21, pp. 1-2
The accompanying photograph of Phil was taken at the Islands Folk Festival about 1993. Phil suffered one of his bouts of Necrotizing Fasciitis/Myositis shortly after arriving on site and had to attend the Emergency room at the Cowichan District Hospital - which accounts for the yellow band on his left wrist. However, he still managed to play the festival.
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