Samuel Larner

Samuel James Larner (18 October 1878 – 11 September 1965) was an English fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton-on-Sea, a fishing village in Norfolk, England. His life was the basis for Ewan MacColl's song The Shoals of Herring, and his songs continue to be recorded by revival singers.

Early life Sam Larner was born in 1878 to George Ezra Larner (1846–1925) and Jane Amelia Jones Larner (1847–1926). He started singing from an early age, learning the songs his grandfather and others sang in the pubs at Winterton, and earning pennies by singing them to coach parties that visited the village. Larner is quoted as saying "Why, for me and my brothers that was either sea or gaol, and that for my sisters that was service or gaol." He first went to sea as a cabin boy on a lugger at the age of 13 and in 1894 signed as a deckhand on The Snowflake, another sailing boat. From 1899 he worked on steam trawlers. As a fisherman he learned the songs fellow crew members sang pulling in the nets as well as in singing sessions in pubs in fishing ports the length of Britain. He won a singing competition in Lerwick in Shetland in 1907, During the First World War, Larner was in the Royal Navy. In 1923 he married Dorcas Eastick (1878–1969) of Great Cressingham. He left fishing due to ill health in 1933, and spent some time unemployed as well as doing whatever jobs he could find, including road mending and forestry. "Barbara Allen", "The Outlandish Knight", "The Jolly Beggar" and "Clear Away the Morning Dew". Others were sea songs such as "Windy Old Weather". I soon picked up the old songs. The ruder they were the quicker I picked 'em up.|

— Sam Larner He was survived by his wife, Dorcas, who died in 1969. They had no children.

Legacy Larner is considered a key figure in the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s. The folk singer Martin Carthy, who influenced Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel with his music, became a musician after being inspired by Larner's singing at a concert in London in the mid-1950s.

There is a commemorative blue plaque on Larner's former home in Winterton. The star of East Anglian folk singing. That's how I was described. An' my old chest went proud out there. I'll tell you'.

- Sam Larner

Discography Solo albums Now is the Time for Fishing, Folkways Records, 1961, re-released by Topic Records as a CD 1999. (Recordings made by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger) A Garland for Sam, Topic Records, 1974 (Recordings made by Phillip Donnellan)

Radio ballad Singing the Fishing, Topic Records, 1960

Anthologies Blow the Man Down Topic Records, 1993 My Ship Shall Sail The Ocean - Songs of Tempest & Sea Battles, Sailor Lads & Fishermen[ (The Voice of the People Vol 2) Topic Records, 1999. Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough - The Life of Rural Working Men & Women (The Voice of the People Vol 5) Topic Records, 1999. We've Received Orders to Sail - Jackie Tar at Sea & on Shore (The Voice of the People Vol 12) Topic Records, 1999. Good People Take Warning. Ballads Sung By British & Irish Traditional Singers (The Voice of the People Vol 23) Topic Records, 2012