Here Comes an Old Soldier from Botany Bay, commonly known as Here Comes an Old Soldier or just Old Soldier, is a

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

and

children's game This is a list of games that used to be played by children, some of which are still being played today. Traditional children's games do not include commercial products such as board games but do include games which require props such as hopscotch ...

found in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

. The game and rhyme date to at least the late nineteenth century.George Laurence Gomme
''A Dictionary of British Folklore''
(London: David Nutt, 1898), 24.

Lyrics

Here comes an old soldier from
Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
, Have you got anything to give him to-day.

When the words are incorporated into a game by children, a caller delivers the lines and the first person responding names the item he will give. The caller then repeats the lines and the next person adds his gift to the one already named; the process is then repeated until there is a long list that has to be remembered. For example:
:''Caller'': Here comes an old soldier from Botany Bay, :Have you got anything to give him to-day? ::''First person'': I'll give him a hat. :''Caller'': Here comes an old soldier from Botany Bay, :Have you got anything to give him to-day? ::''Second person'': I'll give him a hat and a dog. :''Caller'': Here comes an old soldier from Botany Bay, :Have you got anything to give him to-day? ::''Next person'': I'll give him a hat, a dog and a meat pie... - And so on until the list is so long no one can remember it.

Origin and variations

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

wrote of the poem as a "beggars' rhyme" during his childhood in late nineteenth-century

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and quoted the words as thus:

Here comes a poor soldier from Botany Bay: What have you got to give him to-day?G.K. Chesterton
''The Illustrated London News'', December 22, 1934

Mentions of children's games in the late 19th century indicate a variation involving the prohibition of predetermined taboo words. The words forbidden are typically 'Yes', 'No', 'Black, 'White', and sometimes other colours. The child playing the soldier may beg items of clothing and then ask what colours they are, or otherwise enter into a conversation in the hope that the child questioned will forget what has been agreed, in which case they must pay a forfeit.Joseph Wright
''The English Dialect Dictionary''
(London: Henry Frowde, 1898), 339.Edward Verrall and Elizabeth Lucas
''What Shall We Do Now?: A Book of Suggestions for Children's Games and Employments''
(London: Grant Richards, 1900), 10. Various other games incorporating the rhyme emerged in the twentieth century, most notably a slew of local adaptations that replaced the "old soldier from Botany Bay" with an "old woman from Botany Bay."Dorothy Howard,
Folklore of Australian Children
, ''Keystone Folklore Quarterly'' 10, no. 1 (Spring, 1965): 103-104 & 115.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Songs about soldiers Children's games Australian nursery rhymes English nursery rhymes Australian children's songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs Fictional soldiers Songs about the military Memory games

Lyrics

Origin and variations

See also

References