Boers have got my daddy, The

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

This morning in a busy street, a tiny lad I spied,
With paper hat, and little wooden sword slung by his side;
Said I, 'Good morning, Gen'ral!' in a playful sort of way,
'I see by your appearance you're preparing for the fray.'
He stood up to attention, looked at me with flashing eye,
Then gripped his little wooden sword as he made this reply -

The Boers have got my daddy, my soldier Dad;
I don't like to hear my Mammy sigh,
I don't like to see my Mammy cry;
So I'm going in a big ship, across the raging main,
And I'm going to fight the Boers, I am,
And bring my Daddy home again!

I smiled down at the youngster, though a lump came in my throat,
And marvell'd at the pluck beneath that little ragged coat.
To hear the way that kiddy talked it really was sublime,
But there you are! The old, old tale - a Briton all the time!
Said he, 'I've wrote to Gen'ral Bobs, To join his gallant band
I'll pay the naughty Boers for keeping Daddy when I land!

I learnt his father was a private in an Irish corps,
But when I heard the name I knew he'd never see him more;
For in the list of casualties I'd only read that day,
Beneath the scorching veldt that youngster's gallant father lay.
The nipper left me standing there, and marched away with pride,
But turned his little curly head again to me and cried -

One of many jingoistic Music Hall songs written and performed during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) – a particularly nasty conflict in which Britain fought the former Dutch settlers for control of two southern African states. The song was first performed by  Tom Costello written for him by Harry Castling and A.J. Mills . It was also performed by Arthur Reece.

The song has been collected from a number of traditional singers though details are in sources which at the time of writing have not yet been incorporated in the Roud index. It has been collected:

• In America in 1942 by William Main Doerflinger from the singing of Capt Patrick Tayluer. Details are available online from the American Folklife Centre, part of the Library of Congress
• In New Zealand in 1983 by Angela Annabell from the singing of Bert Read. Details from Michael Brown’s MA Thesis (available from not unlike a trumpet full reference below)
• In England in 1994 by John Howson from the singing of Bill Jaggard a recording is available (if you are associated with certain educational institutions) at the British Library Sound Archive

A soundtrack recording from a 1992 production of the show Underneath the arches:

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A38480
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics: New Zealand History
• Sheet Music (not accessed) WorldCat entry
• Details of the Angela Annabell field collection, see Appendix 8.3 of Michael Brown’s ‘There’s a sound of many voices in the camp and on the track—a descriptive analysis of folk music collecting in New Zealand, 1955-1975’ (MA thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 2006).
• Ballad Index

Last Updated on March 16, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: November 23, 2022