Here we are! Here we are! Here we are again!

First Published 1914
Writer/composer Charles Knight and Kenneth Lyle Roud RN10778

Music Hall Performers Mark Sheridan
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
WW1 Troops		 

The poets since the war began have written lots of things
About our gallant soldier lads which no one ever sings
Although the words are very good, the lilt they seem to miss
But Tommy likes a tricky song, a song that goes like this.

Here we are, here we are, here we are again
There's Pat and Mac, and Tommy and Jack and Joe
When there's trouble brewing, when there's something doing
Are we down hearted? NO, let them all come
Here we are, here we are, here we are again
Fit and well and feeling as right as rain
Never mind the weather, now then, all together
Hello, Hello, here we are again.

When Tommy went across the sea to bear the battle's brunt
Of course he sang this little song while marching to the front
And when he's walking through Berlin, he'll sing the anthem still
He'll shove a 'woodbine' on and say, 'How are you Uncle Bill?'

And when the boys have finished up with Herman and with Max
And when the enemy's got it where the chicken got the axe
The girls will all be waiting midst the cheering and the din
To hear their sweethearts singing, 'As the ship come sailing in

A marching song from 1914 when songwriters were churning out jolly recruitment songs to encourage men to sign up to fight in the war. This one was a big hit for Mark Sheridan, who introduced it into his act in October 1914. The song was widely sung by the troops themselves, though they often changed the words – this version appeared in Tommy’s Tunes, a collection of soldiers’ songs first published immediately after the war:

Here we are, Here we are, Here we are again,
Here we are, Here we are, Here we are again,
We beat them on the Marne
And whacked them on the Aisne,
We smashed them up at Neuve Chapelle
And we’re ready here again.

Tommy’s Tunes (1917), p45

Sheridan did record the song, but I have been unable to find a freely available version, so instead here it is as recorded by Frederick Wheeler in approximately 1915:

Sources: