Cyril Tawney

Cyril Francis Tawney, folk revival singer and songwriter, naval historian and broadcaster: born Gosport, Hampshire 12 October 1930, married 1966 Rosemary Radmore; died Wonford, Devon 21 April 2005. Tawney was born into a naval family in Gosport, Hampshire, in 1930. He joined the Navy at 16 and spent 12 years in the service working as a naval artificer (electrician), in naval slang a "tiffy", hence Tawney's song drolly winkled out of a Shakespearian quote, "A Lean and Unwashed Tiffy".