Last Roll Call, The

AKA The survivor’s story
First Published 1892
Writer/composer Charles Osborne Roud RN16749

Music Hall Performers Will Atkins
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Bond, Frank ; England : Hampshire : 1965
Ryder, Mr. E.C. ; England : Hampshire : 1982
Rowe, Cliff; England : Somerset : 1977		 

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!

The Era – Saturday 19 March 1892

One of many songs in praise of empire that were sung in the halls of the 1890s – it featured in the repertoire of several traditional singers in the late 20th century (see above). It was originally written by Charles Osborne  to be performed by Will Atkins.

I have only been able to access the cover of the original Sheet Music, but I am reasonably confident that these were the words for the British version – I have taken them from The Music Hall Songster published by WS Fortey in 1892. American and Canadian versions of the sheet music are available which tone down some of the references to Britain and its empire, and instead just refer to soldiers defending “their colours.”

A fragment sung by Charlie Ryder, as collected by Steve Roud in 1983, VWML

Sources: