SONG AND A NAME

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 20 January 1938, Page 6

SONG AND A NAME

ARMY ASSOCIATIONS. FAME OF TOMMY ATKINS. LONDON, Dec. 22. Correp6ondence in the London Press has brought to light interesting details about the origins of the Army’s most famous name, Tommy Atkins, and its most famous song, “Tipperary.” The song, it is. stated, was composed in July, 1912, by a music hall actor named Jack Judge, while lie was travelling by train from Bury to Mossley, in Lancashire. “On arrival at xhe Mossley Palace Theatre, where he was appearing that week, Jack Judge asked my brother (now deceased) if lie would run this piece over on the piano,” states a correspondent,. Mr S-. L. Brandon. “My brother asked Jack Judge who composed it, and Jack told Him that he had just composed it himself in the train. My brother, therefore, was the first person to play this Eong on the piano.”

A recent account in the journal of of the Royal United Service Institution tells how “Tommy Atkins” owes his fame to tho Duke of Wellington. “In tho autumn of 1794, during tho campaign in the Low Countries,” states the article, “a British infantry regiment was fighting a rearguard action near the village of Boxtel. One of the younger lads of the regiment, which was composed chiefly of recruits, was in danger of being cut off by the enemy.

“An old soldier, who was withdrawing with tho remainder of his company, noticed the lad’s peril and rushed to his aid. The veteran bayoneted several of the enemy and cleared his young comrade’s line of retreat but he himself was overwhelmed and killed.

“A sequel to this incident took place in a room in Walmer Castle some 30 to 40 years later. A staff officer, in compiling a specimen for a now system of pay slieets, wrote tho 11am© of an imagined soldier whose account was to be circulated as a guide. The Duke of Wellington crossed out the name and wrote in its place, ‘Thomas Atkins.’

“Tho duke explained that Thomas Atkins was an old sold>r of the 33rd Foot—the Duke of Wellington’s Itegi-