(Thomas) Edmund CASSON

11 Jan 1883 Pennington ~ 19 Feb 1960 Ulverston

Edmund Casson was the author of the lyrics to “Carol of the Skiddaw Yowes” by Ivor Gurney.

His birth was registered in early 1883, in Ulverston registration district, in the Lake District.  He was the son of Thomas Casson, a grocer and the local subpostmaster in Pennington, and his wife, Eleanor Elizabeth née Ashburnham, who had married a year earlier.  A younger brother, Robert, was born a couple of years later.

He went to school at Trent College in January 1898 and played for the school team in 1899 and in the three following seasons – described as a ‘steady bat, with a good off drive.  Useful bowler and good field’.   He also represented his dorm at fives.  He did well academically, gaining Distinctions for Latin, Scripture and History, as well as passing in Greek, in 1902.  In the academic year 1902/03 he was a school prefect.  He left Trent College in December 1902 and was  elected to an exhibition in modern History at Merton College [Trent College email 200205; & Times Digital Archive  Thu,  Jan. 23, 1902, Issue No. 36672  p5]

By the spring of 1911, Thomas Casson was an Assistant Master at the High School in Keswick, Cumberland and he received his Oxford degree, formally, that summer. [The National Archive 1911 census and & Times Digital Archive Fri  Jun 30, 1911 Issue No. 39625  p4]

A copy of  “Carol of the Skiddaw Yowes”, with music by Ivor Gurney, is annotated “Christmas 1918” and the words are  "Carol of the Skiddaw Shepherds" by Edmund CASSON.

A number of 1930s newspaper articles refer to Edmund Casson and his poetry. [British Newspaper Archive]

In June 1939 the King sanctioned the appointment of T E Casson as a Serving Brother in the Order of St John of Jerusalem.   [Times Digital Archive Sat  Jun 24, 1939 No. 48340 p14]

The 1939 Register, taken in late September of that year, records Thomas (E) Casson as a retired schoolmaster, in Ulverston, living in a household of Margaret Isabella Ashburner, who was, almost certainly, his mother’s younger sister.

In 1945, his poem won the Greenwood Competition, adjudicated by “that excellent critic of verse, Herbert Palmer” who said of the author that, “I know very little except that in 1938 he published a volume of Collected Poems over the name of Edmund Casson, and that he lives in the Lake District, and is a Wordsworthian”.  [The Scotsman Oct 19, 1945]

Early in 1948, he published a new book, which was described as “a long poem dealing with the life of George Fox”.  [Penrith Observer Mar 23, 1948]

Thomas E Casson died on 19 Feb 1960, in Stanley Hospital, Ulverston, aged 77, at which point his address was given as “Vale View, Pennington, Ulverston, Lancashire”.  He left a moderately large estate under the care of Edward Walker Hargreaves, solicitor.  He was buried on 23 Feb 1960 at St Michael & Holy Angels, Pennington.   [Furness Family History Society; government’s FindAWill website]

Margaret Rose GIRDLER / YOUNG

10 Nov 1888 Northampton ~ 19 May 1958 Johannesburg

“Margaret Rose” is known as the lyricist for at least three songs set to music by Michael Head  (“When Sweet Ann Sings”, “Star Candles” and “The Little Road to Bethlehem”) amongst a number of other works.

Margaret Rose Girdler was born 10 Nov 1888, in Northampton, the daughter of John Arthur Girdler, a mercantile clerk, and his wife, Carrie Amelia née Smith.  They had married just over a year before in Carrie’s home of Priors Marston, Warwickshire.  By 1901, Margaret Rose had another three younger sisters, Daisy, Doris, and Olive, and her father had changed career and had become a Wesleyan Evangelist.

The family emigrated to South Africa in September 1903.  Margaret Rose’s mother, Carrie, died in mid-March, 1905, in the Transvaal.  Her father married the 39-year-old Emily Patience Hyam Smith (not, apparently, related to Carrie), in 1912.   There are several records of the family travelling to and fro and in April 1926, Margaret Rose Girdler was travelling home from South Africa, via Southampton, to her home in North Weald, Epping, in Essex.

Sometime between July and September 1928, Margaret Rose Girdler and Francis Stuart/Stewart Young were married in Stepney registration district.   Margaret Rose’s father died in the May of the following year, in Lynton, Devon.

In September 1939, Mr & Mrs Young were living at 1 The Rosary, North Weald Bassett, Epping, and it can be seen that Francis was about 20 years older than Margaret Rose.  No children appear to have been registered in England & Wales to this marriage and there’s nothing to suggest that there were any children.  Francis died on 30 Jul 1949, with his widow as one of the executors of his estate.

Margaret Rose Young, a lyric writer, of The Rosary, Church Lane, North Weald, was travelling unaccompanied to South Africa, in late October 1957.  [The National Archives BT27/1831]  The entry in the UK Government’s probate index tells us that Margaret Rose Young, a widow, died on 19 May 1958, at 22 Mildura St, Kensington, Johannesburgh (sic).

The Essex Records office has three boxes of records associated with the couple.   The contents are described here: https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/result_details.aspx?ThisRecordsOffSet=1&id=833728

[FamilySearch carries a number of records from the South African National Archives; FindMyPast and Ancestry carry records from The National Archives covering passenger lists to and from the UK]