Ruth Herbert Lewis

Ruth, Lady Herbert Lewis, OBE (née Caine; 29 November 1871 – 26 August 1946) was an English temperance movement activist of Manx descent and collector of Welsh folk songs. She published collections of Welsh folk songs, and was a key member of the Welsh Folk-Song Society in the first half of the 20th century.

Portrait of Miss Caine (4674326)

Early life and education

Ruth Caine was born in Liverpool, the daughter of William Sproston Caine and Alice Brown Caine. Her father was a Member of Parliament. She attended Newnham College, Cambridge, but as Cambridge did not award degrees to women at the time, she was given a master's degree by Trinity College Dublin.[1]

Folk music

After she married a Welsh politician, she moved to Wales, learned to speak Welsh, and committed herself to learning Welsh culture. In 1906, she was one of the charter members of the Welsh Folk-Song Society (Cymdeithas Alawon Gwerin), and in 1930 she was elected to a term as president of the society.[2] She and other Society members collected wax cylinder recordings of Welsh-language traditional songs, and published a journal of their findings.[3][4][5]

Books authored by Ruth Herbert Lewis include Folk-Songs Collected in Flintshire and the Vale of Clwyd (1914) and Second Collection of Welsh Folk-Songs Collected by Lady Herbert Lewis (1934).

Social reform

Ruth, Lady Herbert Lewis was active in the North Wales Women's Temperance Union. She also ran an all-night canteen for soldiers in Westminster during World War I. She received an OBE for her work during the war.[1]

Personal life and legacy

Ruth Caine married Sir John Herbert Lewis in 1897. They lived in Caerwys and in London, and had two children together, Kitty and Mostyn. Ruth was widowed in 1933, and died in 1946, age 75.[1]

Her wax cylinder recordings survive in the archives at the St Fagan's National History Museum in Cardiff, National Museum Wales,[6] and at the British Library.[7] Other materials relating to Lady Herbert Lewis are at Bangor University,[8] the National Library of Wales and Flintshire Record Office.

Both of her children, Kitty Lewis (Mrs. Idwal Jones)[9] and Dr. Herbert Mostyn Lewis, carried on her work and serve terms as president of the Welsh Folk-Song Society.[5] The National Eisteddfod has an annual "Lady Herbert Lewis Memorial Competition" for adult solo folk singers.[10]

References
  1. Evan David Jones, "Lady Ruth Herbert Lewis" in Dictionary of Welsh Biography (National Library of Wales 2009).
  2. D. R. Jones, "Lady Ruth Herbert Lewis (1871-1946): Indefatiguable Collector of Flintshire's Folk-Songs" Archived 22 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Flintshire Historical Society Journal 37(2007): 106-68.
  3. Rosaleen Graves, "Folk Song at the Celtic Congress" The Welsh Outlook. Welsh Outlook Press. 1921. pp. 185–186.
  4. Phyllis Kinney, "J. Lloyd Williams and the Welsh Folk-Song Society" in Welsh Traditional Music (University of Wales Press 2011): 203-228. ISBN 9780708323588
  5. E. Wyn James, "An 'English' Lady Among Welsh Folk: Ruth Herbert Lewis and the Welsh Folk-Song Society" in Ian Russell and David Atkinson, eds., Folk Song: Tradition, Revival, and Re-Creation (University of Aberdeen 2004): 266-283. ISBN 0-9545682-0-6
  6. Phonograph Cylinders collected by Lady Ruth Herbert Lewis, Archives, National Museum Wales (museumwales.ac.uk)
  7. Ethnographic Wax Cylinders, Sounds.bl.uk. Accessed 7 January 2023.
  8. "Rare Christmas Carol Discovered" BBC News (18 December 2006),
  9. Kitty Idwal Jones Papers, National Library of Wales.
  10. Lady Herbert Lewis Memorial Competition for those aged 21 and over, National Eisteddfod.
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