Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag

Private Perks is a funny little codger,
With a smile, a funny smile
Five feet none, he's an artful little dodger
With a smile, a sunny smile
Flush or broke, he'll have his little joke
He can't be suppressed
All the other fellows have to grin
When he gets this off his chest.

'Hi, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile
While you've a lucifer to light your fag
Smile boys, that's the style
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile.'

Private Perks went a marching into Flanders
With his smile, his funny smile
He was loved by the privates and commanders
For his smile, his sunny smile
When a throng of Germans came along
With a mighty swing
Perks yelled out 'This little bunch is mine
Keep your heads down, boys, and sing.

Private Perks came back from Bosche-shooting
With his smile, his funny smile
Round his home he then set about recruiting
With his smile, his sunny smile
He told all his pals, the short, the tall
What a time he'd had And as each enlisted like a man
Private Perks said 'Now my lad,'

Most associated in the British Music Halls with the singing of Florrie Forde, Pack up your troubles was a huge global hit, translated into many languages.

The song was written and composed by George and Felix Powell (1879-1942), although George Powell (1875-1951) used the pseudonym George Asaf. The brothers had previously had some success as a Music Hall act in which Felix played the piano and George sang, but the success of this song catapulted them to a new level of fame. They had written the song some time previously, but rejected it as “piffle”. They pulled it out of a drawer labelled “duds” to have something to enter into a national competition for a rousing wartime song and were surprised when it won.

The song may have prompted a division between the brothers. George was a lifelong pacifist and conscientious objector. He hated the way the song was used as a rallying cry as thousands of young men were sent to their deaths. Felix on the other hand, signed up and served as a staff sergeant in the trenches. The horrors he saw there led Felix to a mental breakdown, and eventually he too would hate the song he had created. Felix committed suicide during financial difficulties in 1942, and his brother died a few years later.

It has been suggested that Wilfred Owen’s anti-war poem Smile Smile Smile was written in response to this song.