G'day again,

Gypsy: I couldn't see any reference in the usual collections of Australian / services song.

What I can remember being sung was ltttle more than Lee Shore quoted ... usually sung to the marching tune that also has the lines:

"The poor little bugger will never play rugger ... "

attached. Perhaps these have migrated in to provide an extra verse.

(I was actually playing beside the bloke who I remember as singing these words, last Sunday ... when we doth provided music for the Australian Heritage Dancers ... in the Sydney Chinese New Year March! I was a bit too busy to remember this query and ask if he had more ... I follow him up, as well.

BTW: At the end of the march, from Sydney Town Hall to Dixon Street, in Chinatown, I was grabbed by visiting (UK) Mudcatter Bill Sables. I think he had recognised me going past up at the Town Hall ... and he had skirted round the crowds to greet me at the end of the march. We had a quick chat ... before he had to find his way back to where he had left his wife!)

John Mehlberg: Given references to "... old ANZAC drinking song ...", &c - perhaps you should give Warren Fahey a prompt, to see if he come across such unattached lines, which he didn't include in his Diggers' Songs book.

I might also run it past Rob Willis, of Forbes, NSW ... as he did a lot of work with WWII / Korea and Vietnam troops.

Regards,

Bob Bolton