William Kimber

Who was William Kimber?

William "Merry" Kimber, was an English Anglo concertina player and Morris dancer who played a key role in the twentieth century revival of Morris Dancing, the traditional English folk dancing. He was famous both for his concertina playing and for his fine, upright dancing, such that in his day he was presented in the highest circles of society.

Kimber was born at Headington Quarry, Oxford, and had left school at the age of nine to work as a bird-scarer before taking up the trade of a bricklayer. However Kimber also played the concertina for his local Morris Dancers, the Headington Quarry Morris Men, and he was the musician when they were encountered by Cecil Sharp in 1899. Sharp, who was to be in the forefront of the revival of English folk music and dancing, noted down his first Morris tunes from Kimber's playing. Subsequently Kimber acted as Sharp's informant on the Headington Quarry Morris tradition, and as his assistant at lectures — Sharp would lecture on them while Kimber demonstrated the dances and played the concertina. Kimber's fame grew, and he danced at the Royal Albert Hall, the Mansion House, and in front of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Chelsea Hospital.