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Judge,  John Thomas  [Jack]  (1872-1938), music hall entertainer and composer, was born at 18 Low Town, Oldbury, Worcestershire, on 3 December 1872, the eldest son of John Judge (1849-1888), ironworker, and his wife, Mary, nee McGuire (1853-1922). His father, from Carrowbeg, co. Mayo, was part of Oldbury's Irish community, drawn by opportunities for work. The family left Oldbury when his father lost his job, and Jack was educated at local Catholic schools in Wolverhampton and Moseley. They returned in 1883 when his father found employment at Bromford Iron Works. At nearly twelve Jack was tall and strong, and, although under age, bluffed his way into a job as well. Two years later his father left to start a fish business with a stall in Oldbury, but died in 1888, leaving a widow and seven children. The family struggled to maintain the business, and each morning Jack had to fetch fish on a handcart from Birmingham, before going to the iron works. On 9 June 1895, at St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in Oldbury, he married Jane Ann (Jinny) (1869-1921), daughter of William Carroll, ironworker; they had four children. Soon after his marriage he left the iron works to concentrate on the fish business.

Jack Judge and his sister, Jane Ann, had entered talent shows at local music halls and public houses. He built up a local reputation as a singer, comedian, and entertainer, with a powerful musical whistle. He never learned to read music, but composed songs, which musical friends wrote down. One such friend was Harry Williams, pianist and brother of the licensee of the Malt Shovel, next to Judge's house in Low Town, Oldbury. Judge was a lifelong gambler and drinker, and was soon in debt to Harry Williams. He promised that if he had a song published he would add Harry's name to it.

In 1910 Judge entered a competition arranged by the magazine Encore in London. Although he came third he received the most publicity, and started to tour theatres throughout the country as a professional entertainer, taking his song collection with him. Between performances he would earn beer money by getting fellow drinkers to wager that he could not write a new song overnight and perform it the next day. With a little revision a song from his old collection would easily win the bet. While performing at the Grand Theatre, Stalybridge, he pulled the 'new song trick', and on 31 January 1912 sang 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' for the first time. The song was almost certainly a rewrite of something from his collection, probably 'It's a Long Way to Connemara'.

'Tipperary' was well received, so Judge offered it for sale. It was published by Bert Feldman & Co., and first sung by Florrie Forde on 21 July 1913 in a show on the Isle of Man. Judge included Harry Williams as co-author to honour his promise. By 1914 Bert Feldman had published seventeen more songs by Judge, all typical music hall songs, catchy and enjoyable, but with little literary merit. Only 'Tipperary' was much remembered. The song received a unique boost when it was sung by the Irish Connaught Rangers as they landed in France in August 1914. Soon it was taken up by other regiments as a marching song, translated into other languages, sung worldwide, and recorded by John McCormack. Judge was liable for conscription in the later stages of the war, but granted exemption provided he continued to tour the country raising morale. He wrote songs that were more overtly patriotic, such as 'We're All under the Same Old Flag' and 'Proud I Am'. He helped wounded soldiers by fund-raising in and around Oldbury. His eldest son, John, was killed in Mesopotamia in 1917.

After the war Judge continued his professional career as performer and composer, now writing peace songs, including 'Jerusalem: The Joyful Hymn of Victory and Thanksgiving', written 'with the greatest respect to all people, and with due reverence to all Creeds, in an honest endeavour to re-echo the sentiments of Civilisation' (pamphlet issued by Jack Judge, private copy). Harry Williams had left Oldbury and did not feature on his songs after 1917. After Williams's death in 1924 a continuing controversy arose over his contribution to 'Tipperary' and other songs. In 1915 Judge was quoted as saying: 'I am the composer and original singer of 'It's a long, long way to Tipperary'. Mr Harry Williams collaborated with me in writing the words. The same remark also applies to other songs'  (Midland Chronicle, 29 Jan 1915). He wrote a letter to The Stage in 1924: 'I was the sole composer of 'Tipperary', and all other songs published in our names jointly. They were all 95 my work, as Mr Williams made only slight alterations to the music he wrote down for me from my singing the compositions' (quoted by Gibbons, 196). Later, he claimed to be the sole author: 'no other person ever wrote a word of the song ...' (interview in Oldbury Weekly News, quoted in the Black Country Bugle, 1 April 1999). The exact circumstances of its composition are unlikely to be established. The 'joint' songs are typical of Judge's output before 1910 and after Williams's death, and must be mainly his work, although Williams probably harmonized and arranged them, as Jack Jesson did in the 1920s and 1930s.

Judge's professional stage career ended on the death of his wife, Jinny, in 1921. This was the start of a period of sadness and turbulence in his life. He performed only locally, and returned to the fish business. On 18 April 1922 he married, second, Maria (Ria) Oliver (1887-1971), a war widow with three young children. His second son died of tuberculosis in that year. His remaining son did not accept the new extended family and joined the army, starting a period of separation until 1933, when he returned home and died soon afterwards of tuberculosis. Judge's daughter, Cissie, had died in 1924.

By the mid-1920s Judge was working on his music again, initially with his adopted brother Edward (Ted) Judge, who was also a professional performer. The new songs were taken up by professionals, including 'You're All the Better for That' (1929, sung by Ella Shields) and 'I Go to Monte Carlo' (1933, sung by Florrie Forde), but none achieved the success of 'Tipperary'. He also wrote verses about local tradesmen, his favourite football team, West Bromwich Albion, and national events, which he sold locally for a penny. Songs about a malted loaf, 'Cremalt', made in Oldbury, were recorded in the 1930s, as advertising jingles. An enthusiastic admirer of royalty, he sent several songs to the king and queen, including 'Beloved Princess Marina' for her marriage in 1934 to Prince George, and 'Long Live their Majesties', for the jubilee of George V and Queen Mary in 1935. He then sold pamphlets containing the words, together with the reply from Buckingham Palace.

In the late 1920s Judge's voice started to fail, and in 1930 he was diagnosed with a cancer at the base of the skull; this spread to his left eye, which had to be removed. In 1937 he retired from the fish business in poor health. He died at Hallam Hospital, West Bromwich, from a 'malignant tumour of the orbit and spheroid'  (d. cert), on 25 July 1938 and was buried at Rood End cemetery, Oldbury, on 30 July. There were tributes from King George VI and the stage world, including Florrie Forde.

A newspaper commented of Judge's most famous composition that:

The structural pattern in which a salient phrase is repeated three times was responsible for its being easy to learn, but the repetition and failure to achieve an effective climax were weaknesses that helped, along with the change in emotions of war, to bring about its supercession by 'The Long, Long Trail', 'Pack up your Troubles', and 'Keep the Home Fires Burning'. But the refrain of 'Tipperary' can still recall more immediately than anything else the spirit and excitement of the early days of the War. (The Times, 29 July 1938)

Contrary, though, to widespread belief Judge did not make a fortune from the song, having sold the copyright to Feldman for a limited royalty. He is commemorated with a statue unveiled in 2005 at Stalybridge, where 'Tipperary' was first sung, and in his native Oldbury by the new library building, Jack Judge House, and the streets Tipperary Walk and Judge Close near to where he lived.

Terry Daniels 

Sources  V. H. Gibbons, Jack Judge: the Tipperary man (1998) + Judge family papers, priv. coll. + Sandwell Community History and Archives, Smethwick, song sheets and pamphlets + historyofoldbury.co.uk, accessed on Oct 2012 + Oldbury Weekly News (19 Feb 1915); (13 Aug 1915); (5 Aug 1938) + Midland Chronicle (29 Jan 1915) + census returns, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 + b. cert. + m. cert. + d. cert.
Archives Sandwell Community History and Archives, Smethwick, song sheets and pamphlets FILM BFI NFTVA, performance footage SOUND BL NSA, performance recordings
Likenesses  photograph, c.1930, priv. coll. · photograph, 1920-29, priv. coll., Sandwell Archives [see illus.]



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