Has anyone seen my tiddler?

AKA Tommy Tiddler
Has anybody seen my tiddler
A song about a little fish
First Published 1910
Writer/composer AJ Mills and FW Carter Roud RN13330

Music Hall Performers Millie Payne
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Tarling, Jack; England: Suffolk, 1995
Belton, George; England: Sussex, 1969		 

I've been a fishing with some boys today
Fished in the little pond that's down our way
I stood like so, and soon you know
I caught a little tiddler with a nice soft row
Oh how it wriggled in the jam-jar
There were tears in it's eyes of blue
Now I'm unhappy 'cos I've lost it
So excuse me for asking you.

Has anybody seen my tiddler?
Tiddle, iddle, iddle, iddle, iddler
I caught that little fish with some cotton and a pin
Oh how I laughed when I dragged him in
But coming home, Oh dear oh
That rude boy Dicky Diddler
He poked his fingers in my galipot
And pinched my tiddler.

Young Dicky Diddler who was by my side
Stirred up the water and the fish all guyed
And you can bet, I was upset
When Dicky pushed me in the pond, my socks got wet
I said 'I'm going to tell your Father
And we'll soon be on equal terms'
He called me names to get his own back
And he collared all my worms.

Soon as the tiddler came and took my hook
Young Dicky Diddler gave an envious look
I laughed Ha, Ha, but he went 'Yah'
And tried to kick the bottom out of my jam-jar
He said he'd follow me to my street
And he stuck to me just like glue
All of a sudden tho' I missed him
And I missed my tiddler too

A song full of double entendres written by AJ Mills and FW Carter, published by Mills’ firm Star Publishing. It was a huge hit for Millie Payne.

It was remembered and sung by several traditional singers in the south of England. You can hear George Belton and audience singing it on the British Library Sound Archive site

Managers of early 20th century music halls had to tread a fine line between the desire to please the audience and the need to attract middle-class audiences and therefore appear respectable. The story of this song illustrates this tension… At the time the song was first published, both performer and publisher were clearly very aware of the nature of their song and adverts would begin with the suggestion that if you saw anything rude it was your own filthy mind, claiming that this was only “a song about a little fish”. Here’s one example of many:

The Era – Saturday 17 September 1910

A few years later, in 1913 the song was described as “indecent” in court, prompting Millie Payne to publish a densely worded half-page Open Letter in The Encore which in 12 bullet points refuted the alleged suggestion that the song was “not fit to be sung in public”. The open letter argued that the song had been performed for many years without complaint and ended once again by suggesting that “to the pure all things are pure!”. The decency or otherwise of the song was not central to the court cases, and as far as I can tell the judge did not describe the song as being “not fit to be sung in public” so its hard not to see this as opportunistic publicity to boost a song already a few years old.

One case in which the song was mentioned involved Walter Gibbons, one-time booking manager for a group of Halls trading as London Theatre of Varieties. He was trying to retrieve money he felt owed by his former employers. At the same time case of unfair dismissal was being pursued against the same firm by Charles Read, former booking manager for the Brixton Hill hall. During the two cases both Gibbons’ and Read’s reputations came under attack- they were accused of demanding bribes in return for lucrative booking contracts and of allowing inappropriate repertoire be performed. During Charles Read’s case the following exchange took place:

Evening Standard (London) 23 Apr 1913

A contemporary recording by Fred Harrison:

Sources: