Died 18 August 1965 | ||
Books In Chimley Corner, A Parcel of Ol' Crams, Yap, Ole Biskit, At Home and Abroad | ||
Albert John Coles (also known as Jan Stewer, 14 March 1876 – 18 August 1965) was an English author.
Contents
Jan Stewer is generally known in the South West of England as a character in the song 'Uncle Tom Cobley', the chorus of which ends with 'Uncle Tom Cobley and all'. This was also the name of Albert John Coles, (referred to as A.J) who, for 64 years, wrote and performed Devonshire dialect stories, plays and songs. Noted by John Betjeman, before he was Sir John, as 'among the great understanding humourists' (1980, Douglas J Cook, Moonraker Press) Coles published seven books, wrote amusing stories for local papers, toured rural theatres with his stage act and took a play to the Haymarket Theatre in London in the course of his career as Jan Stewer.
Early life
Coles was born on 14 May 1876, in Woolwich. His father was an artilleryman at Woolwich Arsenal. William Coles lost his first wife while he was on service in Mauritius and was left with two girls, Wilhemina (Mina) and Louie. His second wife also had two children, Harry and Bertha. William and his wife (possibly Elizabeth Peterkins, although this is still to be confirmed) were both children of Devon farmers, giving Coles his Devon roots and early dialect experiences.
Coles was brought up in Kent for a while where his father was in charge of one of the Martello towers that were still in use on the coast. He left school at fourteen years old and possibly worked as a messenger boy until he had saved enough money to join his father's regiment, where he furthered his education before being invalided out with a weak heart. This allowed him to put his education, quick wits, experiences and humour together and become a schoolteacher.
Career and family
Coles may have trained as an assistant teacher in Bristol before obtaining a job as schoolmaster in Puddington, Devon, in 1898. The village had obtained a grant to employ a teacher for the children in the area, a mixture of village and farm children. The school was a one-room (albeit a large room) schoolhouse where all the children were taught regardless of age. Coles lived across the street and records show he was an organised and zealous teacher who was both firm and creative in his work. He was keen that all the children attended and in his first six months the average attendance rose, which meant another grant was possible and a salary rise for Coles. This allowed him to marry Florence Stephens in 1901 on the 7th of January. Her parents (Coles' uncle on his mother's side and his wife) had a farm in Exton Parish, Devon, and Florence was the eldest of seven children. It is possibly the fact they were cousins or perhaps their age difference (Florence was five years older than Coles) that made Florence reject his initial proposal. He had wanted to get married on the first of January, 1900 but she did not agree and he had to wait for a year before they married.
Coles taught at Puddington for four years in all, with around 40 pupils, and was a conscientious and sometimes entertaining teacher. He improved attendance at the school and the quality of education. Evidence of this exists in the School Log book of the time and also a small magazine he made with the children that showcased their writing. It was through this magazine that Coles began his writing career, after a story he had written for the last page of the magazine was read by the editor of the Devon and Exeter Gazette. In his first story he invented the character Jan Stewer, taking the name from the song Widecombe Fair which was well known locally at the time. This was mostly in order to keep his work anonymous, as the newspaper would have been the main form of entertainment and information for any who could read and so could be seen, and therefore criticised, by his neighbours. His first story was published on 9 March 1900, and added 7 shillings and 6 pence to his income that week.
He accepted a post at Exeter Boys School in Teignmouth as headmaster of 300 boys beginning in January, 1902. After a year there Coles and his wife moved back to a small village, Poltimore near Exeter, where they soon had their first child, Harry Albert T Coles on 01/02/1903. Colin was also born while they lived at Poltimore, on 07/09/1904. His two daughters, Mary Adeline Jenny Coles, 16/08/1907 and Joan St Ewer Coles, 28/12/1910 were born while the family was living in Newton Abbot (see below). By the time the girls were born Coles' alter-ego Jan Stewer had been appearing in stories for first the Devon and Exeter Gazette and then the Western Weekly News and was well known in the Devon area. So while the boys' names can be traced to their father's family, the girls' names managed to include both his own initials and the mythical St Ewer, Coles' wordplay on Stewer.
In Poltimore Coles met and worked with another reciter of stories in the Devon dialect, Charles Wreford, with whom he went on to perform on radio, telling stories in the Devon dialect. At the time he was also noticed due to the fact he owned one of the first motor-bicycles in the village, which he used to transport both himself and his wife and child around the surrounding area.
His last appointment as a teacher was at Bovey Tracey, Devon, at The British School for two years. He had sold his motor-bicycle by then and cycled six miles each way from Newton Abbot, Devon where the family was living at the time. He stopped teaching at the school in Bovey in 1908, due to political differences with the local people.
During his time at Bovey Tracey Coles also took some night school classes, two that addressed more core curriculum subjects, and a third, freer class that looked at a more cultural education. This was the start of his dramatic career, when he wrote a play, Revel Day, for the students in the class. It included a libretto based on Songs of the War by Barrington-Gould and was acted and produced by amateurs in the local town hall in 1907. A small but efficient orchestra led by Jack Furler accompanied the cast and crew of forty people and the play was extremely well received. It went on to play four nights at the Devon County Show, a week at Torquay's Theatre Royal and Exeter's Theatre Royal before ending up in Torquay for another week. It was later (1922) shown with a revised script and new orchestration at Torquay Pavilion.