Greetings all readers

AN OLD NAVAL FAVOURITE

Oh boy where there is a good song, so everybody wants to own it. well there is a lot more music in it yet so help yourselves

originally sung by the troops as a marching song in the 1st and second Boer War and very much during the zulu war where it was very much the property of the Royal Naval Brigades made up of sailors from HMS Active and Boadicea etc. - (There is no direct assosiation to Rorkes Drift or Issllwanda except they occured in the war during 1879, it is more to do with the march to Ulindi, - but all the Briutish reds and blues would have heard it.

Then taken back aboard ships where it continued in usage - JUST ( very little docuentation)- until it met a strong revival in the third Boer War of 1900 - 1902 when again the RN naval Brigades used the song as a marching piece - The hold em down Zulu warrior now asks the Zulus (Generic term for native africans- irrespective of tribe or race) to occupy the boers until the sailors could get the bayonet 'up-em' Hence the verse about the dinghy

Of course it was such a good song that the the Royal Engineers tightened their spanners about it and borrowed it, claiming ownership since perpetuity, but then they would being Engineers, didn't they also copy their original blue coats from the RN still that's another story

Of course Baden Powell also gets into the act about this same time coming away from the same battle field and a few years later he encourages his forehead knuckling toggle wearers to claim the sung as well, despite the sea cadets having more vocal abilities.

As I said any good song worth its weight, is good enough to go around and around - so lasses and laddies fill your boots, jus remember you borrowed it from the senior service.

However the story does n't end there, as the RN gets into the act once again in WW2. IN 1943 a group of Devonport sailors, adds this old chorus into the Oggie Song medley - now the Zulu Warrior dit is forever attached to it as THE esential penultimate element of the medley, where it is usually preceded by 'Alladin' and the 'Three Crows' etc and of course (LADIES COVER YOUR EYES) Scouts line up in file - there's the 'This Old Hat Of Mine' and the 'dance of the flamers' which are now now usually seen as the finishing part of the 'oggie medley'.

Thats where the Devonport Field Gun Team brings in the Oggie chant - The Devonport Services Rugby Team uses it and adopts as its mascot the OGGie Oggie cry and the whole world of rugby sport, and everybody who has ever mounted a bycycle or picked stones out of horse hooves now try to pretend they thought of it first.

But I will leave you to discover more about that on your own. Further reading   at www.navysong.co.uk follow the links to the Oggie Song

Wherever you come from to read this I hope you enjoy this rattling good sing - P.S A tip I learned from 'Crocodile Dundee' use a gas lighter or a box of matches instead of rubbing two sticks to light your gas fire or barbi
bottoms up

BAZ