AUSTRALIA'S " DIGGER."

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14712, 18 September 1918, Page 9

AUSTRALIA'S " DIGGER."

.GENESIS OF A NAME

, .An. -Australian officer just back "from <the front relates Iha-t the first, question asked by an Americanised German prisoner was 5> "Say, why "do they call, the (Australians 'Diggers??" and"; he had 'to admit that he did not know. Many other Tpeople have asked for an explanation. Enquiry amongst ithose recently from the trenches sluiws: that the origin: 'of the expression is vague. There are various definitions, b;ut few of them agr<*. The general belief is that, the rtamey like Topsy, "just; grqwed." „ I*i 1914 the Australian soldier was* frequently 'referred to 'tis "Tommy CorjiStatk:" After the' Gallipoli' Tan'dihg be .became' "Bill Anzac,'*. and -'lat^r the ; Vjiole of ' the -forcei was simply Anises, described; aß' "great' diggers." Among themselves the men. know each other as ."mate' and "cobbetr." When severe ngnbing 1 m JFi-Arice had' so' changed the 'personnel . of battalions 1 that only a 'small ■proportion ' of- the survivors 'had ever seen Aiizac '■Cove, it is said that: the mtfduest nekv recruits hesitated io accept the reflected glory- of a -name' which they had had no; hand m burnishing. .■About. the time of the first Pozieres attacks, it is said, a hi <jh-. British' officer passed a body of meii> qt work with nick and .shovejl, and asked. "Where do jyou soldiers come 'from ?'•' Tho spontane-' oiis chorus camo ,back to him with ma hy Rmiles, "We're not soldiers ; we're diggem !" From then the name, seems to have stuck ! Men began to address each f'lher familiarly f as "Digger" ;it was alwavs'a happy substitute for any name. So many of the later reinforcements came from Western Australia and so many of the eastern men were from the mining fields, that "Digger" came) easiest to the lips : and then the Mmmc Corps were all 'M<gjrers." So the whole force seems to have accepted naturally the title which.^ constantly recurs how" in letter, cable 'message, and cartoon. For ■all time the Australian soldier will probably be known us a "Digger," 'though he will not know why.