Last Roll Call, The

Words from The Music Hall Songster (1892) 

THE LAST ROLL CALL.
Written and Composed by Charles Osborne.

Fifty years ago last Friday, 
On a wild and stormy day,
I was fighting for the colours, 
Many thousand miles away;
Though we were but one to twenty, 
Still we beat them - yes, they lost!
Though the world proclaimed our victory 
What a price that vict'ry cost!

Side by side, like a crimson tide, in the days of long ago.
On we dash'd and our sabres crash'd, till we'd conquered ev'ry foe;
But one by one ere the fight was done, I saw my comrades fall.
And I was the only one left to answer the last roll call!

Fifty stalwart British soldiers 
Thrashed a host of deadly foes.
Fifty sabres flashed like lightning 
Ere the shout of victory rose.
Like an avalanche of thunder 
On we swept - "Hurrah! they run!"
Then I rode back home in silence,
All had fallen there but one.

By the dim and ghostly torchlight, 
There we sought them where they fell,
They who'd saved their country's honour, 
They who'd fought and died so well;
Who is this, beneath those shadows? 
Halt! lads, gently raise his head;
Turn the light, this way, men - silence, 
Jack, my own twin brother, dead!