A Sailor Coming Home- Derek & Hazel Sarjeant (Kent) 1958
[From: Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91Ug-CAjAc&feature=youtu.be titled Derek and Hazel Sarjeant in Concert - Hahnstatten, Germany, 1988.
Some bio info from his website follows.
R. Matteson 2017]
Derek and Hazel Sarjeant sang together for 35 years during which time they built up a vast repertoire of varied songs and tunes. Both Derek and Hazel were well established as performers before joining forces.
Derek started playing the trumpet at the age of 15 and gained experience with various jazz bands in Kent. He formed the Golden Gate Jazzmen and played for 2 years but eventually took up the guitar and started singing and playing in a skiffle group. Derek, a pioneer of the Folk Revival started Kent 's first folk club in Chatham in 1956.
A Sailor Coming Home On Leave - sung by Derek and Hazel Sarjeant. Derek learned it, "Many many years ago in Kent" (about 1958). Similar to the 1966 text of a track with the same title from the recording "Up The Foc'sle" by The Lower Mess-Deck Chorale Ensemble.
A sailor coming home on leave
Did find his house without a light
He crept into his daughter's room
And found her hanging from a beam.
He took his knife and cut her down
And on her breast these words he found
I loved a sailor I loved him true
Oh see what true love can do.
Oh father dear don't weep for me
He was a sailor young and free
He took me down a shady lane
And now for his love I'll die the same
Oh dig my grave oh dig it deep
And place white lilies at my feet
And at my breast go place a dove
To signify that I had died for love
So we dug a grave and dug it deep
And placed white lilies at her feet
And at her head we placed a dove
To show that she had died for love
Now all you maidens bear in mind
A sailor's love is hard to find
So if you find one good and true,
Don't change the old love for the new.