{"id":23775,"date":"2024-03-01T15:11:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T15:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=23775"},"modified":"2024-03-01T15:11:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T15:11:59","slug":"last-roll-call-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/last-roll-call-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Roll Call, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The survivor’s story<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1892<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Charles Osborne<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN16749<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Will Atkins<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Bond, Frank ; England : Hampshire : 1965
Ryder, Mr. E.C. ; England : Hampshire : 1982
Rowe, Cliff; England : Somerset : 1977<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Words from The Music Hall Songster (1892) \n\nTHE LAST ROLL CALL.\nWritten and Composed by Charles Osborne.\n\nFifty years ago last Friday, \nOn a wild and stormy day,\nI was fighting for the colours, \nMany thousand miles away;\nThough we were but one to twenty, \nStill we beat them - yes, they lost!\nThough the world proclaimed our victory \nWhat a price that vict'ry cost!\n\nSide by side, like a crimson tide, in the days of long ago.\nOn we dash'd and our sabres crash'd, till we'd conquered ev'ry foe;\nBut one by one ere the fight was done, I saw my comrades fall.\nAnd I was the only one left to answer the last roll call!<\/em>\n\nFifty stalwart British soldiers \nThrashed a host of deadly foes.\nFifty sabres flashed like lightning \nEre the shout of victory rose.\nLike an avalanche of thunder \nOn we swept - \"Hurrah! they run!\"\nThen I rode back home in silence,\nAll had fallen there but one.\n\nBy the dim and ghostly torchlight, \nThere we sought them where they fell,\nThey who'd saved their country's honour, \nThey who'd fought and died so well;\nWho is this, beneath those shadows? \nHalt! lads, gently raise his head;\nTurn the light, this way, men - silence, \nJack, my own twin brother, dead!\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Era<\/a> – Saturday 19 March 1892<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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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<\/a>  to be performed by Will Atkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/em> 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.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A fragment sung by Charlie Ryder, as collected by Steve Roud in 1983, VWML<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n