There's a simple little cross out at Mons Just a simple little cross out at Mons. There's a little pile of stones That stand above the bones Of Private William Jones Out at Mons. And the cross is just a simple soldier's gun With the business end still pointing to the sun; There's a bayonette 'cross the top And it doesn't look a lot But now that's all he's got Out at Mons. And there are no pretty flowers on the grave; And there is no fine memorial To The Brave. He's a hero, so they say, But he gave his life away For fourteen pence a day Out at Mons. This is not a modern effort. It was a 'hit' in the music halls around 1919. Had anyone tried to do it a couple of years earlier they would probably have been lynched. But by 1919 the music halls were full of ex soldiers who knew very well what the score had been.
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