David Richard Wickens, 1898-1970
In her report on her October 1953 folk song expedition to Kent, Maud Karpeles wrote that she had recorded a version of ‘John Barleycorn’ from “Dave Wicken”, at Smarden.1 The fate of that recording is, sadly unknown – it is not listed in either the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library catalogue, or the Roud Index.
Dave Wickens had been born at Boughton Malherbe on St David’s Day, 1st March 1898. At the time of the 1901 census his father James was working for his father, William Wickens, who farmed at Park House Farm, Boughton Malherbe. William was originally from Ulcombe. He had been an agricultural labourer, but by 1891 had progressed to farm bailiff, and farmer by 1901. David’s mother was Annie Maria, née Martin, who came from Dover. She and James would ultimately have six children; David was the third eldest, and the second eldest son. By the next census in 1911, James Wickens was farming Park House Farm, and by 1921 Dave was “Assisting Father In General Farm Work”.
Between these dates, however, Dave had served in the Royal Navy. His service appears to run from 6th November 1916 to 18th March 1919. When enlisting, his occupation was given as agricultural labourer. He was 5 feet 3½ inches tall, with dark hair, hazel eyes, and a fair complexion. His service began at HMS Pembroke II (Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey) and included periods at Gibraltar, Woolwich and Greenwich, and on board HMS Dido, HMS Columbine, HMS Hecla and HMS Prince George.
Dave married Ethel Pack in the final quarter of 1924, and the 1939 Register shows them living at Haffenden Farm, Tenterden – roughly halfway between St Michael’s and Biddenden. Dave’s occupation was given as “Farmer Stock Breeder Hw” (i.e. Heavy Worker). His granddaughter Gill Bromley, who has fond memories of visiting her grandfather at Haffenden as a child in the 1960s, writes “Dave was married to Ethel Pack (another big local family) and they moved from a farmworkers cottage at South Park, Egerton to Haffenden Farm before the War in 1938 or 39. They rented it until Dave eventually bought it”.
Dave and Ethel had five daughters, all apparently named after characters in folk songs. One of his surviving daughters recalls him “singing at home, after tea. There was one song he had to stop singing as it made her cry, because it was sad – The Faithful Sailor Boy”. Also “John Barleycorn, which she’d found a bit scary as a child (involved “cutting him down at the knees”). She also remembered him singing carols at Christmas at his mother’s request. But she couldn’t remember him singing publicly other than in the church choir”. There’s no recollection in the family of him singing songs in other contexts, although he “did go to the Flying Horse [Smarden] on Saturdays, so maybe there was singing there?”2 It seems likely that he had some kind of local reputation as a singer, or how would Maud Karpeles have encountered him in 1953?
Dave Wickens died on 8th October 1970.
I am indebted to Gill Bromley (née Batt) for passing on her own recollections, and those of other descendants of Dave Wickens, and for providing these photographs.
Songs
- The Faithful Sailor Boy (Roud 376)
- John Barleycorn (Roud 164)
- Maud Karpeles, Folk Song Collecting Expedition Kent October 12th – 17th 1953, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library MK/1/2/4907 ↩︎
- Gill Bromley, personal communication, February 2025 ↩︎
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