Just to settle a query about the inclusion of 'Maginot lines' in the lyric. This was no accident or oversight and was, in fact, very deliberate. The song is supposed to represent the voice of the ghost of a dead soldier ('We left them buried in the bloody fields of France...') Looking back in time beyond the time of the Maginot line he wonders what became of the dream they had all had of the 'war to end all wars'.

And, yes, it is 'spell' rather than 'say'.

One funny sideline. I was once asked to sing 'the song about the unicorn' and racked my brains wondering was meant. I eventually realised they had misheard the line 'All for a uniform...'

TOMMY’S LOT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ZreQkoUBc


All for a uniform and three square meals a day 
We marched off in the Grand Parade 
Across the sea to France and up the line to death 
Like we were off on holiday, 

But where’s your land that’s fit for heroes, 
And the promises that you forgot? 
Blame it on the King, blame it on Lloyd George, 
But spare a thought for Tommy’s Lot. 

At Passchendaele, through the gas and shell, 
We stumbled through the jaws of Hell, 
But how will a mother say,”Your father fell…” 
In a town that she can’t even spell? 

And, if these men died for a reason, 
Did anybody tell them what? 
Call it an act of God, call it insanity, 
But spare a thought for Tommy’s Lot. 

Whatever became of the war to end all wars? 
Where did that grand illusion go? 
We left it buried in the bloody fields of France 
Beyond the lines of Maginot. 

Now, from the poppy fields of Flanders, 
The ghosts who never heard that final shot 
Sing, “Jerusalem will be built again!” 
But spare a thought for Tommy’s Lot. 

“There is a corner of a foreign field that is forever England.”

Words and music © 1980 Dominic Williams