Captain Lanoe’s Quick March jig

I’ve heard this tune played at pub sessions at several folk festivals in England.

I assume the tune has some connection with Captain Lanoe George Hawker VC, DSO - one of the first air “aces” serving in the Royal Flying Corps during the first World War (the Royal Flying Corps was the forerunner of the RAF). If my assumption is correct, did he write the tune? Or was it written in his honour?

Of course, I may be wrong about this - if so, I hope that someone wil correct me.

This tune is sometimes referred to as being “Captain Nemo’s Quick March” which is almost certainly incorrect.

Captain Lanoe:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConMediaFile.7190

This is in Vic Gammon’s Sussex Tune Book, his source being the Alymore ms dated 1796 and 1818, so maybe just a wee bit early for a flying ace.

An earlier and more contoured version is in Vickers (1770) and earlier books as Marionets Cotillon / Cotillon Marionettes.

@Matt Seattle - thanks for putting me right on that one! It would seems that the tune is a lot older than I thought … 🙂

But the question remains - who exactly was this Captain Lanoe? And was perhaps “Lanoe” a surname, rather than a forename?

I always thought it was thus, as in:

http://www.visiblesound.co.uk/pdf/Captain%20Lemo’s%20Quick%20March.pdf

I also could have sworn it was on here already …

eb, I have always known this as Captain Lanoe’s (however you might spell it; Lemo? never heard that name before, anyway)
and locally it’s followed by Moon and Seven Stars which makes a nice set!

Whatever, it’s a nice tune. I wonder who the good Captain was? I’d say it was odds-on that it’s a surname, but who?

The Moon and Seven Stars, eh? Yeah, that would make a good pairing. Both good, well-known tunes.

You’re not that far from me, are you John? Maybe I should take a trip up the road to somewhere near you. What sessions are there up there?

This probably accounts for one of the two incorrect AKAs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Nemo

If it was “La Noue” (of which Lanoe seems to be a variant) there were several captains in the Breton family. Though quite how an English quick march would be named after one of them would be anyone’s guess:
http://lanoue.free.fr/devair.htm

Lano is a surname principally from the Portland stone quarrying area of Dorset. e.g. John Comben Lano died in 1866 in Portland and his house became known as “The Captain’s House”, though his birthdate and when/whether he was a captain and this tune was first called by that name I can’t ascertain, except that I can’t find it any earlier the Aylmore MS, possibly as late as 1818. Certainly there was a regiment of Irish Foot under a Colonel Lano in the early eighteenth century.

http://www.nigelcopsey.com/reports/elsewhere/elsewhere_claremont.pdf

I was listening to Etienne Grandjean’s album “Accordeon Diatonique” and the first tune in the set “Erce, Dol Et Plessala” reminded me strongly of Captain Lanoe’s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXuAdNu_QEk

play video

No idea about the provenance of the tune in Etienne’s set, but could be interesting considering Weejie’s comment about the possible Breton origin of the name.