Alice Bertha Gomme

Born in 1853, she became one of the early figures in British folklore studies and was a founding member of the Folklore Society in 1878. She is best known for collecting and studying the games, songs, and customs of children, treating everyday play as an important part of cultural history.

Her best-known books include The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland and The Children’s Singing Games. These works gathered a remarkable range of material and helped preserve traditions that might otherwise have been lost.

She later became known as Lady Gomme and remained closely associated with the study of folklore until her death in 1938. Her writing is still valued for the care she brought to recording how children learned, played, and passed traditions from one generation to the next.