Albert John Coles (also known as Jan Stewer; 14 March 1876 – 18 August 1965) was an English author.
Jan Stewer is generally known in the South West of England as a character in the song "Widecombe Fair", the chorus of which ends with 'Uncle Tom Cobley and all'. This was also the name adopted by Albert John Coles, who, over 64 years, wrote and performed Devonshire dialect stories, plays and songs under this name. He was also (as Mr. A. J. Coles) by turns a schoolteacher, soldier, farmer, managing editor of a newspaper, and "journalist, playwright" (self description in 1939). He was described by John Betjeman, before he was Sir John, as "to be numbered amongst the great understanding humorists"., The dust cover of The Shop with Two Windows references The Daily Herald Coles wrote many books, wrote some 5,000 stories for local papers, toured town and village halls with his vaudeville stage acts, wrote, acted and produced plays, (one of which was performed in the Haymarket Theatre in London), acted in films and broadcast on the BBC, in the course of his career as Jan Stewer.
Timeline Early life: Birth until 1898
Known homes: Woolwich (1876), Sandgate (1881) Folkestone (1891, 1892).
Albert John Coles was born on 14 March 1876. His mother was Elizabeth Coles, born Stephens, and his father was Sergeant-Major William Coles of the Royal Artillery. He was born in one of the married quarters of the Woolwich Arsenal.Birth certificate, registered 25 April 1876, and Cock, pp. 12, 13: though Cock, in the only biography, oddly, never mentions the names of his mother or father, anywhere
Elizabeth, his mother, had six children, three of whom survived: Henry William (born Woolwich, 1872), Albert John (Woolwich 1876) and Bertha. (Sandgate, 1883)1911 Census; reference RG14PN4256 RG78PN169 RD55 SD2 Schedule Number: 96 William Arthur was born in Willand in 1871, died in Woolwich, 1871. Susan Elizabeth, Woolwich, 1874, d. 1875. Third Child, unknown. William Coles had two daughters by a previous marriage, his first wife dying in Mauritius, where he was stationed. His eldest was Williamina Mary,Her signature on her wedding record, 1 August 1889 (not Wilhelmina Cock, p. 13], known as"Mina". She also named her daughter "Williamina". She was born in Alderney, Channel Islands, in 1863. Jane Louise Elizabeth GBPRS_SURREY_7416_1_18_061 was born in Mauritius in 1866. She was known to the family as "Louie". She is named Jane L. in the 1871 census, Louisa E. in 1891; "Louisa" in 1881.Elham, Archive reference: RG 11; Piece number: 1008; Folio 6; Page 5 She married Herbert Webb in 1893.
William and Elizabeth were married on 17 Jan 1869 in Willand, where both were born.Marriage Certificate, Parish of Willand, Devon Elizabeth Stephens in 1839, William in 1834. Her father, Thomas, was a "Farmer of 55 Acres." in 1851, in 1861 her mother was a widow, "Farmer of 70 Acres." William Coles' father, John Coles, was a (farm) labourer, as William was before enlisting.
Coles attributed his devotion to the county, its language and customs, to his mother. "The county of Devon was the only place on earth for my mother and she often used to tell me about the countryside around Willand and speak to me in the Devon dialect."John Beaven, "Jan Stewer, Village Chronicler", Western Morning News, 1964. His son, H.A.T. Coles said his father as a child spent holidays in Devon.Clement Marten. (1983). "Flibberts and Skriddicks". Exeter: Clement Martin Publications It is interesting that of them all only Albert returned to Devon. His father, mother, brother and sister stayed in Kent. Bertha and their mother, Elizabeth were registered as living in the School House, Puddington, in the census of 1901. They presumably came for the wedding of Florence and Albert. No other evidence of interaction known.
Sometime after 1876—and before 1881—William Coles was promoted to the rank of Master Gunner, and put in charge of the Martello Tower constructed from Sandgate Castle, to which the family moved. He was the last Master Gunner. In 1881, at the age of 5 (1881) A. J. Coles was a school pupil, and his half-sister, Tomsa, was a pupil teacher at the British School. A Pupil Teacher in the 19th century was like an apprentice. They taught younger children, under supervision, and so learned the "trade" of teaching, at the same time continuing their own education. They gained qualifications after 5 years. Bertha Coles was born in Sandgate in 1883.
In 1889 they were living in 3, Coolinge Villas, Folkestone, from which home his half-sister, Williamina Mary married Sydney Adolphus Baker. In the census of 1891 they were still living in Coolinge Villas, Grimston Avenue, Folkestone. Coles's other half-sister (now called Louisa) had qualified, and is listed in the census as School Mistress. A. J. Coles had followed his sister and was listed as Pupil Teacher (aged 15). We do not know how old he was when he started his training. In the next year, 1892, he (now 16) gave Pupil Teacher as his occupation on joining his father's regiment.Army Form B. 207, Long Service, 16 September 1892 Cock has a different story. He says Coles left school at fourteen, "and was, it is believed, a messenger boy until he had enough money to join his father's regiment." He also says Coles furthered his education at an army school.Cock, p. 16 Coles signed for 12 years, but we do not know how long he served before being invalided out with a weak heart.Cock 1980, p. 16, "a year or two later". We do not know how he completed his qualifications to be a teacher. Before 1898 little is known.
1898–1908: The Decade of Teaching
This decade was unique in the life of Albert Coles. The only comparable periods might be his soldiering experience and his ownership of a farm. We know practically nothing of these periods. He never lost interest in soldiering, keeping involved in training groups and serving in the First World War. He never taught again. He does not seem to speak of his teaching methods until 40 years later in an article called "The Dreadful Dialect".Jan Stewer, "The Dreadful Dialect". The West Country Magazine Vol. 4, No. 3. London 1949, pages 184–186. Cockpp. 57—64 cites passages identical to parts of this article, but amongst a good deal of other material, unfortunately without reference. Perhaps "free use of some of his unpublished memoirs"?.Cock, Acknowledgements No date is given. He did occasionally write criticisms of the administration of education—particularly the 1902 and 1908 Acts of Parliament.
He seems to have begun this period with the enthusiasms of a young man. His teaching aimed to make his pupils bilingual, fluent in standard English and the Devonshire dialect. His writings had two aims, to promote the Devonshire dialect and to instruct his readers in the affairs of the outside world. It was indeed the decade of teaching.
His writings for this period have been generally inaccessible, stored in archives of libraries, such as The British Library, until they became available from the British Newspaper Archive. remembering that the archive files The Devon and Exeter Gazette under Plymouth and Exeter Gazette (only 1865—1885!) Several of his most popular stories were reprinted in the first three books. These three earliest books were not easily obtained in later years. Heavily revised versions—both in content and language—were reprinted in 1915, in the Devonshire Book, the Third Edition of the Demshure Buke. In the later reuse, e.g. In Chimley Corner (1927), this version of the stories was used as a basis for the re-writings. Any reference to "the Club" was omitted. The audience was no longer Devonshire speaking people, though even in 1933 he hoped it might "gladden the heart of here and there a West-Country exile far from home." "I plead guilty to having made the story ... the first consideration."Ole Biskit: With Glossary, London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1933
Coles support for the Unionist cause never wavered, although it caused much opposition in this period. He used his writing in this period to advocate for such policies as the Boer War, anti-Irish Home Rule, to suggest how to get the Devon people to vote for conservative parties and to attack the Liberal Party and its supporters. As one might expect, he shared the racism of the times. One "progressive" view he espoused was the rights of women. He firmly supported extending the franchise to women, and in the contributions attributed to "Anne Stewer", the disadvantages and aspirations of women were clearly expressed—so clearly that the hand of Florence Coles has been suspected. This was firmly abandoned along with "Uncle Tom Cobleigh's Club", which totally vanished from public consciousness. The retrospectives at the 40th and 50th anniversaries of his writing, and Cock, recognise that from March 1902 until November 1905 his contributions were entitled "The Talk at Uncle Tom Cobleigh's Club" (Cock misspells it as "Cobley"), but no-one knew what that Club was.
Cock says: "He was wise enough to keep political affinities out of his tales, only once did he slip up." (.p. 41 No reference is given for this "one" occasion. But it was a re-use of an earlier story. The language used against the token "liberal" ["Arry "Awk] was, in the period of the Second Boer War, much more negative. "Zumbody putt "P.B." arter 'Arry 'Awk's naame, an' that wiz vir "pro-Boer." 'Arry didden like et tarl; but tis as Turney zaith, "eef yu goes een tha sty, yu mis' axpeck ta smull o' tha pigs; an' tes tha zort o' smull that'll 'ang about a'body vir a braave while is pigs; an' zo ull pro-Boers vind; thay'll kape tha smull o't vir a gude while ta kom, an' thur's meny English voke wid prefer tha smull o' pigs be a braave zite, an' thik idden tha swatest een tha wurdle."Devon and Exeter Gazette, 5 January. 1902
On the "Irish Question", he (as "Tom Cobleigh") says of an Irish member of parliament," Thee gurt maze-crack, mump-aided vule toad, wat ta gudeness du ’e think thee be zticked up their vor, like a gurt gap-mouthe, lukin’ za zuent as a basket o’ chips, way yer wit-pot nonsince an’ yer ole gites an’ itums, tullin’ o’ zummat thee cassan understan theezul na nobody else nuther. Git 'ome thee wit-pot an’ bide een ouze long o’ misses. Yu mid du a bit o’ gude thur maybe. Yu cude du up a vew choors I dersay, or quiet tha cheel whane ees scralin’, or zee tha tetties didden bile auver an’ zet up a stooer, but er muzzen trist ’e way cloam, or twid be zune brawked aul abroad ta shords."."Demshur and Irish", Jan Stewer's Demshur Buke, p. 42-45 Cock did not know the early editions of The Demshur Buke, and only two out of some 360 stories of the 1900–1905 series. We do not know what Coles actually wrote in the early stories in the Western Weekly Times, but this kind of language does not occur in the third edition of "Jan Stewer's Demshur Buke" (called "Jan Stewer's Devonshire Book " in the 1915 third edition.) What is true, is that his partisan political views were not published in the printed books, and—we do not know—may not have figured in newspaper stories after 1905. He continued to support the Unionist cause as A. J. (or, Bert) Coles.
Teaching Autumn 1898 to Spring 1902: Residence School Cottage, Puddington.