[Editor: This article, including a song, pertaining to the Boer War, was published in The South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA), 13 February 1900.]
A verse for Australian soldiers.
Mrs. C. M. Williams, of Hackney, has composed an additional verse to “The soldiers of the Queen,” and it was sung by Mr. F. H. Wild as an encore at the Jubilee Exhibition continental on Saturday night.
Mrs. Williams is the wife of the Rev. J. H. Williams, who until the war broke out was stationed at Roodepoort, Pretoria, as a Church of England missionary. The four Churches of which he had charge have been temporarily closed.
Mrs. Williams is actively engaged in promoting a “valentine” continental, to be held at Brookside. Edward-street, Norwood, on St. Valentine’s Day, February 14, in aid of the Nurses’ Fund.
The verse which she composed is as follows:—
Pressing foremost in the battle’s fray
Australia’s stalwart sons are seen;
’Tis what they do, not only what they say,
That proves them loyal to their Queen;
For tho’ they’ve never seen her,
Still they hold her dear,
And long to be her soldiers true,
For brave Australian boys full of fun and joys,
Still can gallant deeds of daring do,
Still can gallant deeds of daring do,
And when they shout “Australians rally”
We’ll rally round our British flag.
Source:
The South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA), 13 February 1900, p. 6
Also published in:
The Adelaide Observer (Adelaide, SA), 17 February 1900, p. 7
Editor’s notes:
Boer War = (1899-1902) a war fought by two Boer republics — the South African Republic (also known as the Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State — against the British Empire; the war was also known as the Anglo-Boer War, or the South African War, although (in Britain) it was also called the Second Boer War, as the British had fought against the Boers in 1880-1881, however, as this was the first conflict in which Australian units had fought against the Boers, in Australia it was simply known as the Boer War, whilst the Boers, or Afrikaners, called it the Second War of Independence
tho’ = (vernacular) though
’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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