Baby’s name, The

This song reflects racist, misogynist and colonial ideas that were commonplace at the time but are no longer acceptable today.

AKA The Boer War song
The War, War, the blooming war
First Published 1900
Writer/composer CW Murphy and Albert Hall Roud RN21229

Music Hall Performers Charles Bignell
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Pennock, Billy; England : Yorkshire; 1962
Forbes, Annie; Scotland : Caithness; 1968
Nesling, Harkie; England : Suffolk; 1971
Hall, Mabs; England: Suffolk; 1989
Hall, Gordon; England: Sussex; 1989

The War, the War, the blooming war, has turned my wife insane
From Kruger to Majuba she's the Transvaal on the brain
And when to christen our first child, last Sunday week we tried
The parson said, 'What's this child's name?' and my old girl replied,

The baby's name is Kitchener, Carington, Methuen, Kekewich, White
Cronje, Plummer, Powell, Majuba, Gatacre, Warren, Colenso, Kruger
Capetown, Mafeking, French, Kimberley, Ladysmith, 'bobs'
Union Jack and Fighting Mac, Lyddite, Pretoria, Blobbs.'

The parson said, 'Such names I can't upon this infant pop.'
But my wife broke his rolling veldt and smashed his Spion Cop
She jumped upon his Kroonstad, and she never made a miss
Said she, 'I'll burst your armoured train, if you don't think of this,

She tore the parson's flag of truce, then burst his Jacobsdal
She pushed his Modder River right into his shrapnel shell
She kicked his mounted infantry, till his Bloemfontein was sore
Then she did a flanking movement, and she shouted out once more,

A song made famous in the halls by Charles Bignell, mocking the strange sounding names that filled the news as a result of the Boer War. Perhaps it’s also mocking some of the patriotic songs that featured heavily in the halls at that time.

Its an example of a tongue twister song, and I suspect one of the reasons it was remembered by several traditional singers in the later 20th century is that it was so hard to learn in the first place that once it was committed to memory it stayed there!

The entry at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library has links to several recordings.

Charles Bignell ( 1866-1935) biography will appear here (def died after 33)

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000957/19380806/055/0005

Cosmotheka sing it:

Sources: