TOMMY ATKINS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21304, 24 December 1940, Page 8

TOMMY ATKINS

ORIGIN OF THE NAME “O, it*s ‘Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ Tommy go away’; But it’s ‘Thank you, Mister Atkins,’ when the band begins to play.” Thus, in his familiar poem, “Tommy,” Rudyard Kipling deftly touches upon a point concerning Tommy Atkins, the British private soldier. But how did the world happen to hit upon that particular cognomen to designate the rank and the file of England’s soldiery? A logical and probable answer to this query lies in the fact that at one time it was the custom for each British soldier to be supplied with a small pocket manual. In this book the soldwer was to enter his name, his age, when he enlisted, how long he served, and other military data, such as medals, etc. In forms provided by the War Office to help the soldier to understand how the blanks in the manual were to be filled in, the hypothetical name “Tommy Atkins” was used, for which the soldier was to substitute his own personal “John Jones” or “Henry Smith.” The American foot-soldier, on the other hand, is familiarly known as a “doughboy.” The origin of this expression, according to one writer,

traces back to the Civil War uniforms. The dictionary defines doughboy as a “flour dumpling.” The infantry uniform in the days of the American Civil War had large giobular glass buttons which somewhat resembled flour dumplings—hence the appellation. Another explanation offered to explain why American soldiers were called “dougaboys” suggests that the term may have originated in the fact that infantrymen once used pipeclay on parts of their uniform. When they would get caught in the rain, the pipe-clay would become a doughy, sticky mess, and the wearer logically would be known as a “doughboy.” The term “leatherneck.” used to designate a member of the Marine Corps, is thought to have originated in the fact that at one time the collar of the Marines’ uniform used to be lined with leather.