Edwin Christopher Cawte (3 September 1932 – 27 July 2019) was an English folklorist.

Life

Edwin Christopher Cawte was born in Boscombe, a suburb of

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England; his family soon moved to

Gosforth Gosforth is an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, situated north of the Newcastle City Centre, City Centre. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district of Northumberland from 1895 until 1974 before of ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

. He was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and

Cranleigh School Cranleigh School is a Private school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. History It was opened on 29 September 1865 as a boys' school 'to provide a sound and plain education, on the principle ...

, and from 1951 studied medicine at King's College, Durham, then part of the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

but now

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

. After he graduated, Cawte served in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

from 1957 to 1959 as National Service. After leaving the army he practiced medicine in Newcastle and Yorkshire, before moving to Leicestershire in 1961 where he was a

general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

until he retired in 1992. In 1960 he married Betty Horne, whom he had met while at university; the couple had four children. Cawte died in 2019.

Folklorist

Cawte showed a musical talent from an early age. While at Salisbury he was a chorister, and he held a music scholarship at Cranleigh; he also learnt to play the pipe and violin from his mother as a child. At university he played for a university

morris dance Morris dancing is a form of English folklore, English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers in costume, usually wearing bell pads on their shins, their shoes or both. A ban ...

side, the King's College Morris Men, and in the 1960s was part of the Leicester Morris Men. While at university, Cawte became interested in rapper dance, which he began to research. He subsequently collaborated with Alex Helm, Norman Peacock and Roger Marriott to research English folk traditions. In 1960 they published an index of English ceremonial dance traditions in the ''Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society'', and in 1967 Helm, Cawte, and Peacock published the book ''English Ritual Drama''. Following Helm's death, Cawte published ''Ritual Animal Disguise'' in 1978. He also published articles on morris and rapper dance, and self-published booklets with Alex Helm on sword dance and mumming. Cawte coined the term border morris, and was an important figure in its revival. In 2002 Cawte was awarded the

English Folk Dance and Song Society The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS, or pronounced 'EFF-diss') is an organisation that promotes English folk music and folk dance. EFDSS was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dan ...

's Gold Badge. He donated his manuscripts and many books to the

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodi ...

Life

Folklorist

Select bibliography

References

Works cited