NICKNAMES IN THE ARMY

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

NICKNAMES IN THE ARMY

Duke Of Wellington Was Man Who Perpetuated Name Of “Tommy Atkins”

'A REGIMENT that went into action with its . shirt-tails hanging out, is one of the odd facts in military history, which Mr R. J. T. Hills, who once, as Corporal Major of the Lifeguards, wore the scarlet tunic, steel breastplate and silver helmet of that famous regiment, has recently recalled in his delightful book “Something About A Soldier.” And this was not because clothing had suffered more upon active service than usual, but because the men were engaged as a forlorn hope in a night attack; they flew this strange ensign that their comrades might

distinguish them from the rear! From this episode night attacks came to be known by the Spanish word for shirt,' “Camisado.” Such is only one of the quaint facts that may be gleaned in byways of British regimental history—byways which are little explored by the average citizen. . Another is that the officers of The Royal Sussex drink the health of the King sitting, because, when that regiment was in Brighton during the Regency, and its officers dined with the Prince of Wales, the entertainment was so truly “royal” that by the time the toast of “The King” had been reached none of them could stand! So the Prince decreed that they should honour it sitting—and the custom has continued. And now'—who was Tommy Atkins? Most citizens believe that the generic nickname of “Tommy Atkins” for the British soldier was due to the appearance of that name—a purely fictitious „one —upon “the dotted line,” as an example of where the unlettered individual—there were plenty of them in the ranks in the old days—was to sign. Yet its introduction was due to that man of iron, the Duke of Wellington, who is generally supposed to have not an iota of sentiment in his composition. The story is that Wellington, as a very young colonel in command of his first regiment—he had advanced by purchase, and “no damned nonsense about merit,” as a subsequent C.-in-C. put it—was riding down his sadly thinned lines during his first campaign when he came upon a dying man. A French sabre had slashed his head, a bayonet had torn his breast, and. a bullet-hole in the lungs was letting out his life. As he died, he looked up at his young Colonel with a twisted grin, and croaked, “It’s all right, sir. It’s all in the day’s work.” Wellington remembered his name —Thomas Atkins—and he was a grenadier of the Thirty-third Foot—and when, 50 years later, specimen documents were sent for his approval, he gave that hero an immortal fame by scrawling his name in

the vacant spacfe left for the specimen signature. Nicknames are no new thing in the British Army. Every regiment has, as a rule, several—pleasant or otherwise. Some of those with a doubtful flavour, too, can still lead to riot, as they have done many times in the past, when shouted by a rival regiment. But a comparatively new development is the nicknames used by certain batteries of the Royal Horse Artillery, which have noiy been accepted as official titles. Of course, “A” Battery has long been known as “The Chestnut Troop,” on account of the colour of its horses. Later designations, however, are Sphinx Battery for “F,” which received the badge of the sphinx in common with the rest of Abercrombie’s force for its gallantry in Egypt against Napoleon.

“G” is now known as “Mercer’s Troop,” recalling a famous officer who led it at Waterloo, and has left a magnificent account of the battle. “H” is “Ramsay’s Troop,” by which is remembered that- dashing officer charging with his guns through the encircling French at Fuentes d’Onoro.

As Napier writes:—“Suddenly the multitude became violently agitated, as English shouts pealed high and clear, the mass was rent asunder, and Norman Ramsay burst forth, sword in hand, at the head of his battery, his horses, breathing fire, stretched- like greyhounds along the plain, the guns bounding behind them like things of no weight, and the mounted gunners following close, with heads bent low and pointed weapons, in desperate career.” “L” or “Nery Battery” is a reminder of an heroic episode in the retreat from Mons, during which the battery fought six Germany cavalry regiments and 12 guns until all its guns were out of action except one.

That continued firing until all ammunition was exhausted, although only an N.C.O. and two men remained unwounded. The remnants of the Ist British Cavalry Brigade, to which the Battery was attached, after a fight that lasted all the morning, drove off the Germans, who left abandoned 11 of their guns in their eventual hurry to escape. The Norfolk Regiment, which bears the figure of Britannia upon its cap-hadge, was known, when the 9th Foot were in Wellington’s Peninsula campaign, as “The Holy Boys.” The Catholic folk in Portugal apparently thought that the figture represented a saint, although there is an ironic story that the nickname is really due to the Norfolks having once sold their Bibles to buy heer. The “Dirty Half Hundred” are the Ist Battalion of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent, Regiment, formerly the 50th Foot, who at Vimiero were wearing uniforms with black cuffs. The dye was cheap and when, in the heat of the combat, the soldiers wiped their faces with their sleeves the traces were so obvious that the nickname was given amid the laughter of their comrades! Previously the same regiment had been known as the “Blind Half Hundred,” having suffered badly from ophthalmia in Egypt. Two regiments—l3th and 20th Hussars—admit cheerfully to being “Nobody’s Own,” they being the only two units of horse which have no title beyond the numerical. One of the few really heroic nicknames' of the British Army is that of the Lancashire Fusiliers who, in memory of Minden, are known as “Kingsley’s Stand.” As Kingsley’s they formed one of those unsurpassable regiments who mistook an order to “advance on sound of drum” for to advance with sound of drum, and did so, to tumble the whole of the French cavalry into ruin. On August 2, general orders announced that “Kingsley’s Regiment of the British Line, from its severe loss will cease to do duty.” On August that order was countermanded thus: “Kingsley’s Regiment, at its own request, will resume its portion of duty in the line.”