‘Yorkshire’

F. D. Smith

‘Never whilst the waves recoil,
Beaten from her nigged coast,
Never whilst the hills do stand
Shall she cease to be our boast.’

Our Club song was first sung at the Annual Dinner in 1909 and was a joint effort of Barran, Slingsby and Calvert. The pseudonym used being Alfred Cecil Calvert.   The difficulties in the musical composition may be attributed to the musician, the Reverend Samuel Calvert, a member of the Handel Festival Chorus.  My own collection of menus shows that the song was first printed on the 1937 menu. Somehow the penultimate line was lost and replaced by ‘Never whilst the waves recoil’ from 1959 to 1984. The original line returned in 1985 but got lost again in 1986. Back again between 1987 and 1990 but lost again in 1991.  Back again between 1992 and 1994.  Wrong again in 1995 but right again in 1996.  Worse to come, in the years 1971 to 1973, verses three and four were interchanged on the menu.

Surprisingly the problem does not seem to have been aired until this year’s Dinner when, unwittingly, Ian Crowther sang the unauthorised version whilst members read the true words.

Claude E. Benson produced an alternative club song in 1911, ‘What a fine rambling day‘ sung to ‘Tis a fine hunting day‘ and in 1913 came John Arthur Green’s ‘Who are the Ramblers‘ to the air ‘The Yeomen of England‘.

No doubt ‘Yorkshire‘ was sung annually between 1909 and 1937.  It certainly was at the Club’s coming of age in 1913, when the following were sung: ‘Here’s a Health unto His Majesty‘, ‘Yorkshire‘, ‘Ourselves‘, ‘West Country Lad, ‘On Eekla Moor Baht ‘at‘, ‘The Ramblers of Yorkshire‘, ‘Ho Jolly Jenkins’, ‘Mr Booth‘, ‘The Floral Dance‘, ‘Auld Lang Syne‘ and ‘God Save the King‘. With ten speeches breaking up the singing it lasted from 6.45 to 11pm. Those were the days!