Ewan MacColl
| Ewan MacColl | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Henry Miller 25 January 1915 Broughton, Salford, England |
| Died | 22 October 1989 (aged 74) Brompton, London, England |
| Occupation | Playwright, folksinger, labour activist |
| Years active | 1930–89 |
| Spouse(s) |
Joan Littlewood (m. 1934; div. 1950) Jean Newlove (m. 19??; div. 19??) Peggy Seeger (m. 1977; his death 1989) |
| Children | 5, including Kirsty MacColl |
James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was an English folk singer, songwriter, communist, labour activist, actor, poet, playwright and record producer.
MacColl was born as James Henry Miller at 4 Andrew Street, in Broughton, Salford, Lancashire, to Scottish parents, William Miller and Betsy (née Henry), both socialists. William Miller was an iron moulder and trade unionist who had moved to Salford with his wife, a charwoman, to look for work after being blacklisted in almost every foundry in Scotland. James Miller was the youngest and only surviving child in the family of three sons and one daughter (one of each sex was stillborn and one son died at the age of four). They lived amongst a group of Scots and Jimmy was brought up in an atmosphere of fierce political debate interspersed with the large repertoire of songs and stories his parents had brought from Scotland. He was educated at Grecian Street School in Broughton. He left school in 1930 after an elementary education, during the Great Depression and, joining the ranks of the unemployed, began a lifelong programme of self-education whilst keeping warm in the Manchester Public Library. During this period he found intermittent work in a number of jobs and also made money as a street singer.
He joined the Young Communist League and a socialist amateur theatre troupe, the Clarion Players. He began his career as a writer helping produce and contributing humorous verse and skits to some of the Communist Party's factory papers. He was an activist in the unemployed workers campaigns and the mass trespasses of the early 1930s. One of his best-known songs, "The Manchester Rambler", was written after the pivotal mass trespass of Kinder Scout. He was responsible for publicity in the planning of the trespass.
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