Henry and Robert Hammond
Henry Hammond (1866-1910)
and Robert Hammond (1868-?)
Henry Edward Denison Hammond Robert Francis Frederick were born at Priston, Somerset. They were the second and third sons of Henry Walmsley Hammond, who had retired prematurely from the H.M. Bengal Civil Service due to ill health. Their father's condition resulted in a move to Madeira in 1873 where died within days of arrival, leaving a widow and six young children. They returned to Somerset.
Henry was educated at Lancing College and then Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he excelled at association football obtaining one cap for his country. He spent a year at Blairlodge School before joining the staff of the Edinburgh Academy and meeting George Gardiner. He taught classics, and became renowned for his work on the theory of education. In 1899, he was appointed Director-General of Education in Rhodesia until his health failed. He returned home after only a year.
Henry teamed up with Gardiner for his first foray into folk song collecting in 1904 , Henry noting the tunes. In 1905 he continued in a more serious manner with his brother Robert (noting the texts) in Minehead, Somerset, where they were “trying to collect some of the gleanings of Mr Sharp's harvest”. Though Gardiner may have first inspired Henry and Robert, it should be noted that the Hammond family was connected with both Cecil Sharp's family and the Reverend Charles Marson - Sharp's first collaborator.
Correspondence with Lucy Broadwood in June 1905 resulted in the brothers turning their attention to Dorset where they noted 193 songs in 3 months. They worked tirelessly, meeting a number of singers with impressive repertoires, including Mrs Russell at Upwey in 1907, who finally gave them 100 songs. Over 900 songs were noted from 193 singers in six counties, the majority from Dorset.
A selection of songs were published in the Folk-Song Society's Journal in 1907 and Folk-Songs of England, Book 1, comprised sixteen songs collected by the Hammonds. Henry died of pneumonia on 16 June 1910 and was buried in Edinburgh. Robert's life is still something of a mystery.
The Hammond papers reside with the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML), London
Browse The Hammond collection in The Full English digital archive.
