{"id":10310,"date":"2021-04-29T08:48:08","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T08:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=10310"},"modified":"2025-12-23T08:14:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T08:14:36","slug":"private-tommy-atkins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/private-tommy-atkins\/","title":{"rendered":"Private Tommy Atkins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Tommy Atkins
We take him from the city or the plough<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1893<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/composer<\/td>Hamilton \/ Potter<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN13695<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Charles Arnold, Hayden Coffin<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Essex, Mary; England, Berkshire; 1991

<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
PRIVATE TOMMY ATKINS.<\/strong> \nWords by Henry Hamilton.   Music by S. Potter.       \n  \nOh, we take him from the city or the plough, \nAnd we drill him and we dress him up so neat; \nWe teach him to uphold his manly brow.   \nAnd how to walk, and where to put his feet, \nIt doesn't matter who he was before, \nOr what his parents fancied for his name; \nOnce he's pocketed the shilling, and a uniform he's filling, \nWe call him Tommy Atkins all the same.   Oh!-      \n\nTommy, Tommy Atkins, you're a \"good un,\" heart and hand; \nYou're a credit to your calling, and to all your native land; \nMay your luck be never failing. May your love be ever true!\nGod bless you, Tommy Atkins, here's your country's love to you<\/em>! Oh you!<\/em>\n       \nIn time of peace he hears the bugle call, \nIn   barracks, from \"Re-val-ly\" to \"Lights out,\" \nAnd if Sentry-go\" and \"Pipe-clay\" ever pall, \nThere's always plenty more of work about, \nOn leave, o'nights, you meet him in the street, \nAs happy as a schoolboy, and as gay; \nThen back he goes to duty, all for England, home and beauty, \nAnd the noble sum of thirteen pence a day.\n      \nIn war-time then its \"Tommy to the front,\" \nAnd we ship him off in \"troopers\" to the scene;\nWe sit at home while Tommy bears the brunt, \nA-fighting for his country and his Queen. \nAnd whether he's on India's coral strand \nOr pouring out his blood in the Soudan, \nTo keep our flag a-flying, he's a-going and a-dying, \nEvery inch of him a soldier and a man.\n\nSo, Tommy dear, we'll back you 'gainst the world \nFor fighting or for funning or for work, \nWherever Britain's banner is unfurled \nTo do your best and never, never shirk. \nWe keep the warmest corner in our hearts \nFor you, my lad, wherever you may be. \nBy the Union Jack above you, \nBut we're proud of you and love you - \nGod keep you, Tommy, still, by land and sea!<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
The name Tommy Atkins has been used as to denote a British soldier since the 18th century . In 1890 Kipling wrote his classic poem “Tommy” a bitter condemnation of the tendency to treat soldiers as either heroes when fighting far away or blackguards when at home. This seemed to spark a series of similar songs and poems .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private Tommy Atkins <\/em>was perhaps the most successful popular song of these – though sadly it has nothing of the subtlety of Kipling’s poem. According to Kilgarriff it was originally sung by Charles Arnold as part of a military sketch and was then rewritten to be sung by Hayden Coffin in the 1893 musical comedy A Gaiety Girl <\/em>at the Prince of Wales Theatre (London). The song very quickly took on a life of its own.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Charles Arnold was an actor who built a career in “legitimate theatre” rather than the halls and the song was at least partially rewritten for a musical comedy, arguably this is not a song written for the Music Hall, though doubtless given its popularity it was sung in the Halls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A fragment of Private Tommy Atkins<\/em> was recited by Mary Essex to folksong collectors Nick and Mally Dow in 1991, and can be heard in the British Library Sound Archive<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its one of a number of songs  about Tommy Atkins from the 1890s and 1900s, including these (there are others):<\/p>\n\n\n\n