Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy

19 Apr 25 - 09:02 PM (#4221246)
Subject: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

Do you know Sister Anna will Carry the Banner ? If so, could you post
your version below with when & where you learned your version?

Any help is appreciated

Thanks!

and e
~
I was reminded of this while working on Away, Away with Rum by Gum
and Salvation Army (Throw a Nickle on the Drum) threads.

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19 Apr 25 - 09:11 PM (#4221247)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

1st voice-
Who shall carry the banner?

2nd voice-
Sister Anna shall carry the banner

Sister Anna-
But I can't carry the banner

1st voice-
Why can't you carry the banner?

Sister Anna-
I'm in the family way.

1st voice-
You're in everybody's fucking way; carry the banner!

Sister Anna-
What about my baby?

1st voice-
Fuck your baby

Sister Anna-
You wouldn't fuck my baby!

1st voice-
I'd fuck a fly

Sister Anna-
Oh you fly fucker!

Posted by John MacKenzie, March 21, 2008, to the Folklore: To the woods,
to the woods!/The Whip! thread. De-expurgated and formatted for readability.


See here: https://mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=2294319

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19 Apr 25 - 09:15 PM (#4221248)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

SALVATION ARMY

SALVATION ARMY! Taking your time from the clock on the church
tower opposite —

CHORUS:

To the citadel - QUICK - MARCH!
Come and join us! Come and join us!
Come and join our happy throng!

Sister Anna — You'll carry the banner!

"But I carried it last time."

Well, you'll carry it this time, and don't bloody argue!

Sister Cox - YOU'LL carry the box!

"But I carried it last night."

Well you'll carry it tonight, tomorrow night, and every other bloody night!

Sister Tucker - YOU'LL carry the other blighter!
"But I'm in the family way!"
You're in every bastard's way !

Sister Nellie - You've got a hole in your belly!

"Well, so would you if you carried the banner for forty flaming years."

"I am an ex-naval officer. I used to stand on street corners, and associate
with the wrong kind of women. But now I have seen the LIGHT: I have
reformed! I feel so happy I could put my foot right through that
BLOODY DRUM!

1979. The Fleet Air Arm Song Book. Mark II. p.176

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19 Apr 25 - 09:32 PM (#4221249)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

Sister Anna shall carry the banner. Apropo of what he calls a catch-phrase dialogue'--strictly, a chant--Anthony
Burgess, in his TLS review of the first ed. of this book, 26 Aug 1977 writes: Then there is Sister Anna shall carry the
Banner, a whole sad story when don in full'. I had never heard it, nor seen it in print, therefore I'm wildy guessing when I
add: 'C20, perhaps arising in a Salvation Army instruction concerning a public procession; and never widely used'. P.B.; E.P.
is half right: the dialogue does start with a parody of a Salvation Army instruction, but there can be few who served as Other
Ranks in the Armed Forces, certainly since c. 1945 and remained unaware of Sister Anna or Hannah:

'Sister Hannah, you'll carry the banner!'
'But I carried it last time.'
'You'll carry it every time.'
'But I'm in the family way.'
'You're in every bugger's way...'

And so on, becoming more and more obscene. But I have always felt the ref. to the 'Sally Army', though mocking, to be
affectionate and away of the Army's real worth, as in the line handed on to me by my late father, therefore to be dated earlier
C20: 'Right! One more verse of "'Oly, 'oly, 'oly", and then we'll bugger orf'.

1984. A Dictionary of Catch Phrases by Eric Partridge. 2nd edition.


See here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_Catch_Phrases

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19 Apr 25 - 09:58 PM (#4221250)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

Caco, the version we used to sing went:

We never eat fruit cake because we do think
that one little bite turns a man to drink.
Oh can you imagine a more terrible case
than a man in the gutter with crumbs on his face.

Away, away, with rum by gum, with rum by gum, with run by gum,
Away, away, with rum by gum, that's the song of the Salvation Army.

Sister Anna carry the banner.
I can't I'm in the family way.
You're in every fucker's way.

Etc.

Posted by Alisoncc on May 10, 2017. To the ops-normal.org form
Stephen Fry blasphemy thread after someone had posted a link to
Judy Henske's "Salvation Army Song".


See here: https://ops-normal.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2423&start=20

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20 Apr 25 - 01:57 PM (#4221291)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

COME AND JOIN US

Chorus:

Come and join us, come and join us,
Come and join our happy army,
Come and join us, come and join us,
Come and join our happy throng.

Sister Anna, you'll carry the banner,
But I carried it last time,
You'll carry it this time, next time, and every bloody time,
But I'm in the family way,
You're in everybody's way,
But I'm pregnant,
You're stagnant.
The whip, the whip,
No, anything but the whip,
Anything?

The whip, the whip.
Come with me to the bedroom,
But I want to go to the pictures,
There are pictures on my wall,
But I want to go to the movie pictures,
They will soon be moving.

Come with me to the woods,
But I'm only thirteen,
Little girl, this is no time to be superstitious,
I'll tell the vicar,
Little girl, I am the vicar.

Come with me to the casbah,
But mummy wouldn't like it,
Your mummy's not going to get it.

Where are you?
I'm hiding, I'm hiding,
Where are you?
I'm still hiding,
When I catch you I'm going to .... you,
I'm under the stairs, I'm under the stairs.

I like taking experienced girls home,
But I'm not experienced,
You're not home yet.

Owing to many recent arrivals in this village, those members of the
congregation who have been placing buttons in our collection plate are
requested to replace the same by SAFETY PINS.

Members of the congregation are requested not to write racing
information in the backs of our hymn books as the practice is
irreligious and the information contained therein is most ERRONEOUS.

Members of the congregation are requested not to throw banana peel
around this establishment as several of our young ladies have SLIPPED
OF LATE.

Members of the congregation are requested not to throw their cigarette
buts into the urinals as it makes them soggy and hard to light.

Members of the congregation are requested to have their building fund
contributions in by Thursday as I will be leaving the parish on
FRIDAY.

During my absence wife will be carrying on as usual WITH THE BISHOP.

All those young ladies wishing to join the mother's club are requested
to see me in the vestry AFTER THE SERVICE.

In order to combat growing alcoholism in this community, next Sunday
we will ceremoniously empty all wine barrels into the river. We shall
now sing hymn number 352 in the red book or number 426 in the white
book, "SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER."

ca 1960. Queensland University (St. Lucia) Hockey Club Song Book pp.60-61.

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24 Apr 25 - 04:00 PM (#4221551)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

As a kid in Manchester in the 40s the 'folk memory' still associated
SA [Salvation Army] with concertinas and tambourines and militancy as
well as brass instruments an carols.

We sang 'And Sister Anna will carry the banner' as we followed them
around. By that time they were generally welcome in pubs and people
chipped in even if they said 'keep the money' when offered a 'WarCry'
paper. people recognised and respected their work even though they
( the boozers) were still boozing!

Posted by michael sam wild, Shireoaks, Notts, UK on May 13, 2010 to
the www.concertina.net forums.


See here: https://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11215-sally-army-lassies-up-in-arms/

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24 Apr 25 - 04:45 PM (#4221552)
Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Anna will Carry the Banner (bawdy
From: Jack Horntip

Oh, God, I’ll never forget the morning when we were sent out
to lay ambushes, which entailed first an attack on a village believed
to be Jap-held. We were lined up for a company advance, and were waiting
in the sunlight, dumping our small packs and fixing bayonets, and
Hutton and Long John were moving among us reminding us quietly to see
that our magazines were charged and the everyone was right and ready,
and Nixon was no doubt observing that we’d all get killed, and someone,
I know, was muttering the old nonsense “Sister Anna will carry the
banner, Sister Kate will carry the plate, Sister Maria right marker,
Salvation Army, by the left - charge!” when a solitary Spitfire came
roaring out of nowhere and Victory-rolled above us. We didn’t get it;
on the rare occasions when we had air support the Victory roll came
after the fight, not before. While we were wondering, an officer -
he must have been a new arrival, and a right clown - ran out in front of
the company and shouted, with enthusiasm: “Men! The war in Europe is
over!”

1945. Quartered Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser. Memoir of WWII.


See here: https://archive.org/details/quarteredsafeout00fras_0/page/27/mode/1up?q=sister+anna

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