Roberts Relief of Kimberley
When first I went to soldier, with a rifle on my shoulder,
There was no one bolder in the Corpss, boys oh!
And when I walked abroad, all the pretty girls would smile at me;
The ladies can’t resist a jolly soldier!
CHORUS
Bang upon the big drum, clash upon the cymbal;
We’ll singas we go marching along, boys, along.
Although on this cvampaign, there’s no whiskey or champayne,
Still, we’ll keep our spirits happy with a song, boys.
Now, when we got the rout, and for Africa set out;
The girls were crying round us on the docks, boys, oh!
As we gavethree hearty cheers for the pretty little dears,
I hope that they’d be true to their soldier.
We marched up fromthe sea and relieved brave Kimberley;
At Paardeberg we took old General Cronje and hismen.
But ‘The Fox’ he went to ground, and he very wuickly found;
That we made him to respect the British soldier.
Now de Wet he ran away, to fight another day;
At Pretoria our Bobs will celebrate boys, oh!
At Ladysmith you’ll see, our flag once more fly free;
The very sight to cheer the British soldier
.
And now I’ll say ‘Good-bye’, for I’m feeling rather dry,
And I see a comrade waiting with a song, boys, oh!
So here’s good luck to all, and promotion soon and better money,
That’s the sort of ticket for a soldier!
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This song was originaly sung, I think, during the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, and is generally known as ‘Bang Upon the Big Drum’, which is also in the composite album ‘The Redcoats, and thus is undoubtedly reported in Levinsons book ‘Songs of the Redcoats’. The ‘light hearted’ aspects of this song probably saw it in use as a recruiting song, as well as sung amongst the soldiery.
This version, in fragment form came from , I think, Jimmy Duffy. I got this song before I started recording for the War Memorial, and thus as yet, don’t have it on tape, or the song as I originally transcribed it: I don’t remember which parts are original, and which I ‘filled out’-I hope to record Mr Duffy at some stage soon.
‘Our Bobs’ is General Lord Roberts of Kandahar; ‘The Fox’ is Boer General de Wet; the song dates after the last ‘Europeran’ style of battle in the Boer war, and before, but anticipates the start of the guerilla war against the Boers.
This song illustrates that a happy Army is a singing Army even without alcohol; they DID get that part wrong, however--there was whiskey and champayne--not for the Australians-for them it was the standard Vietnam Issue of 2 beers per man, per day, per---haps! The English senior officers, however, insured that they had their supply of alcohol and other essentials--at the expense of ammunition, food, and water for the soldiery.
While Roberts was in the process of taking Cronje’s surrender at Paardeberg, The Australians, under French, were on their way to Pretoria.