Give my love to Nancy

From Mackney's 50 Popular Songs for Banjo (pub Sheard, no date)

How I like to tell the story
Though I've told it oft before,
The way we fought for death or glory 
At the blessed Zulu war.
Side by side we fought like demons
Kept the enemy at bay.
Until Jack received a bullet wound,
Which made the fellow say:

Give my love to Nancy, 
The girl that I adore.
Tell her that she will never 
See her sailor any more;
Say I fell in battle 
Whilst fighting with those blacks,
Ev'ry inch a sailor 
Beneath the Union Jack

At first I thought that he was jesting,
knowing he liked a bit of fun,
Until I saw that he was resting 
On the barrel of his gun
I knew that he was badly wounded
Or he never would give way;
And shaking hands, he said “Old comrade,
The best of friends must part some day.”

Take this ring from off my finger
And this locket from my neck,
I've but little time to linger,
So I hope you'll not forget.
And should you ever reach old England,
Which you may perhaps some day,
Give these relics to my mother,
And my orders please obey

I said “I'll not forget to tell her
What you say, you may be sure;”
It grieved me much severely to see the fellow 
Lie there weltering in his gore.
The look he gave me when we parted,
I remember to this day,
And when for camp that day we started,
I fancied I could hear him say:

In 1879 the Liberal leader Gladstone, speaking in an Edinburgh Music Hall, powerfully condemned the military adventures of the Conservative government. He argued they were indulging in a series of theatrical expedients, calculated to excite alarm and stir pride and passion… that they were setting up false phantoms of glory to justify a sense of British superiority and encourage a spirit of domination. Sadly when the Liberals were later elected into government they proved equally likely to indulge in Imperial military adventures.

One of the military “theatrical expedients” that Gladstone was condemning was the Anglo Zulu war of 1879. It was a war in which the Zulu nation was brutally suppressed in order to ensure access to the diamond mines of South Africa. I say this to set the context to what otherwise might be seen simply as a nice romantic song about the bravery and nobility of a sailor.