H.E.D. Hammond

Henry Edward Denison Hammond, 1866 - 1910; early twentieth century folksong collector; brother of Robert Hammond.

Born 1866, Somerset, son of a clergyman. After leaving Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he took up a post at the Edinburgh Academy. There he met Dr. George Gardiner and they became firm friends. In 1899 Hammond was appointed Director of Education in Rhodesia, but after a year he suffered a severe breakdown in health, and returned to England. Early in 1905 Hammond and Gardiner were staying at Minehead in Somerset, and agreed to undertake some song collecting, following in Cecil Sharp's footsteps. Hammond collected 83 songs in Somerset during June 1905, with the help of his brother Robert, and H.A. Jeboult, an organist from Taunton. In August of the same year, he turned his attention to Dorset, collecting 193 songs in just under four months.

He collaborated with Gardiner - for the only time, it would appear - during January and February 1906, when the two men were staying at Bath in Somerset. A further 81 songs were collected. Subsequently the Hammond Brothers collected almost 600 more songs in Dorset, cycling out together from their home at East Clevedon in Somerset: Henry noted down the tunes, and Robert the words.

By late 1907 Henry's health had declined to the extent that he could no longer undertake these bicycle trips, and he collected only six more songs, in Wiltshire in February 1908. He died on 16th June 1910.

Bibliography

Songs from the Hammond and Gardiner collections have been published in four volumes edited by Frank Purslow

• Marrow Bones: English Folk Songs from the Hammond and Gardiner Mss.

(London: E.F.D.S. Publications, 1965).

• The Wanton Seed: More English Folk Songs from the Hammond & Gardiner

Mss. (London: E.F.D.S. Publications, 1968).

• The Constant Lovers: More English Folk Songs from the Hammond & Gardiner

Mss. (London: E.F.D.S. Publications, 1972).

• The Foggy Dew: More English Folk Songs from the Hammond & Gardiner Mss.

(London: E.F.D.S. Publications, 1974).