"On Active Service" with the British Expeditionary Force

SHorryM[Ser#-DoB]v10012-0005-0001.jpg
SHorryM[Ser#-DoB]v10012-0005-0002.jpg

Title

"On Active Service" with the British Expeditionary Force

Description

A song to be sung to the tune of 'Sing me to Sleep' by a 17th Lancer. There are two verses and a chorus.

Creator

Date

1915-10

Coverage

Language

Type

Format

Two handwritten sheets

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

SHorryM[Ser#-DoB]v10012-0005-0001,
SHorryM[Ser#-DoB]v10012-0005-0002

Transcription

October 1915
Sung to the tune of “Sing me to Sleep” composed by a 17th Lancer.
1) Sing me to sleep where bullets fall
Let me forget the world and all
Damp is my dug-out, cold my feet.
Nothing but bully and biscuits to eat
Sing me to sleep where bombs explode
and Shrapnel shell all a-la-mode
Over the sand bags helmets you find
Corpses in front of you, corpses behind
[underlined] Chorus [/underlined]
Far far from Ypres I long to be
Where German snipers can’t pot at me
Think of me crouching where worms creep
Waiting for someone to sing me to sleep
[page break]
2) Sing me to sleep in some old shed
Where rats are running around my head
Stretched out upon my waterproof
Dodging the raindrops through the roof
Sing me to sleep where camp fires glow
And bleaching winds do not blow
Dreaming of home somewhere out west
Sorry old chap if my feet are on your chest
[underlined] Chorus [/underlined]
Written on YMCA writing paper headed “On Active Service” with the British Expeditionary Force.
dated October
1915

Collection

Citation

A 17th Lancer, “"On Active Service" with the British Expeditionary Force,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/26727.

Item Relations

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