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.