Frederick William Morris, 1882–1960
When recorded in the 1970s, the singer George Spicer named Fred Morris of Martin Mill as his source for the song ‘I wish there was no prisons’1. Fred was born on 10th September 1882, and baptised at St Augustine’s church, East Langdon, on 29th October. His father, also Frederick, was an agricultural labourer. He had married Hannah Elizabeth Marsh – like him from the small village of East Langdon – in 1874, and the 1881 census found them living with two young children, and his 67 year old father, Henry. Frederick died at the age of 37, and was buried at St Augustine’s on 25th Jun 1883 – when young Fred was only about 9 months old.
Hannah remarried in 1888. Her new husband was Charles Goodban, again an agricultural labourer from East Langdon. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Goodban, and therefore an uncle to Tom Goodban (another singer whom George Spicer remembered from the pre-war years when he worked in East Kent), and great-uncle to Jack Goodban. Subsequent census records show Charles acting as stepfather to the three children from Hannah’s first marriage, but they do not appear to have had any children of their own.
Fred was still at school at the time of the 1891 census, but Trade Union Membership Registers show that in 1900 he was working as a cleaner on the railways, and became a member of the Amalgamated Society Of Railway Servants. The 1901 census however shows that the family had relocated from East Langdon to Martin Mill (only one mile away). Charles Goodban was now working as a waggoner on a farm, and both 18 year old Fred, and his 25 year old brother Henry, were recorded as “Carter on farm”.
Charles Goodban died in 1905. The 1911 census shows his widow Hannah living with her son Fred, still at Martin. Fred had returned to working on the railway – he was now a Platelayer., and again trades union records show that he joined the National Union of Railwaymen in 1913. Mother and son continued to live at Martin. In 1921 he was working as a labourer for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. In 1925 his membership of the National Union of Railwaymen showed his occupation as “Tuber” (presumably repairing and maintaining the tubes in locomotive boilers). The 1939 Register listed him as “Lengthman Railway”, which was classified as “Heavy Work” (although at the age of 57 he would in any case have been too old for miliary service). Fred and his mother were living at Fairview, Martin – this is on the East Langdon Road, halfway between Martin and Martin Mill.
Hannah died shortly after the end of the War, on 23rd October 1945, at the age of 92. Fred died at the age of 77, in 1960.
Songs
I wish there was no prisons (Roud 1708)
- Liner notes to George Spicer, Blackberry Fold, Topic 12T235 (1974). ↩︎
Leave a Reply