Alice Bertha Gomme

author

Alice Bertha Gomme

1853–1938

A pioneering British folklorist, she helped preserve the rhythms of childhood by collecting and studying traditional games and songs. Her work remains a vivid record of everyday play in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

2 Audiobooks

The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2) With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.

The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2) With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.

by Alice Bertha Gomme

The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2) With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.

The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2) With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.

by Alice Bertha Gomme

About the author

Born in London on 4 January 1853, Alice Bertha Gomme became one of the leading figures in British folklore. A founder member of the Folklore Society, she spent decades collecting, organizing, and writing about traditional customs, with a special interest in the games children played in streets, schoolyards, and village greens.

Her best-known work is The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, published in two volumes in the 1890s. By recording both the rules of the games and the songs that went with them, she helped preserve forms of play that might otherwise have disappeared. She also contributed widely to folklore journals and took an active part in related cultural societies.

Later known as Lady Gomme after her husband George Laurence Gomme was knighted, she continued to be associated with folklore work for many years. She died in London on 5 January 1938, leaving behind a body of research that still matters to readers interested in folk tradition, childhood, and everyday social history.