Waltzing Matilda

[Captain Kong]

Am I a Big Softy??
I have listened to John McDermott`s recording of Waltzing Matilda, I got all choked up and almost in tears listening to the words. Of Galipoli in 1915.
.http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/r...%3DVktJNNKm3B0
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - John McDermott - YouTube Like
.The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - John McDermott (revised ...► 8:08► 8:08www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK6rZ--DhZMOct 30, 2010 - Uploaded by Roderick C Wahr
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - John McDermott.
the words are here,....
.
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda Lyrics
John McDermott
.
.
Now when I was a young man and I carried my pack
and I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty out back
I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915 my country said "Son
It's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done"
And they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war.


And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ships pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off to Galipolli


And how I remember that terrible day
How our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs to the slaughter.


Johnnie Turk was ready, oh he primed himself well
He rained us with bullets and he showered us with shell
And in five minutes flat we were all blown to hell
nearly blew us all back home to Australia.


But the band played Waltzing Matilda
as we stuck to bury our slain
We burned ours and the Turks buried theirs
and we started all over again


Those who were living just tried to survive
In a mad world of blood death and fire
And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher


Then a big Turkish shell knocked me ar5e over head
And when I awoke in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done and I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go Waltzing Matilda
All round the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs a man needs both legs
No more Waltzing Matilda for me.


They collected the crippled, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled in to Circular Key
And I looked at the place where my legs used to be
I thanked Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to Pity


And the band played Waltzing Matilda
as they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
And turned all their faces away


So now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glory


I see the old men all tired, stiff and sore
The weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question


And the band played Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year, the numbers get fewer
Some day none will march there at all


Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.
._____________________________
.
. I found this song a little poignant,
.
.When I was on the good ship `GEORGIC` in September, 1955, we loaded nearly 3,000 Australian Troops, 2RAR, in Sydney, at Woolloomooloo, As in the song, ...........

"And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ships pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off to Malaya."
.
The Band played Waltzin Matilda as we were letting go, thousands of people were singing and cheering, the ferries were sailing along side us as we sailed down the Bay, full of their girls, wives and families all cheering and shouting. the loud speakers on the Ferries were playing Waltzing Matilda, I never forgot the sound.
I was walking forard along the prom deck, I saw a young soldier stood in a corner weeping.
I put my arm around his shoulder and he wept on my shoulder wetting my shirt. "You alright mate"? I said. He said , "I did Korea but now I dont think I will be coming back this time."
We stood there for about ten minutes with me holding him as he wept. then I left him.
We were going to the war in Malaya.
I often wondered if he survived. I know a few of them were killed as I met one I got to know two years later in Brisbane.
War is sad.
Brian.

[cappy]

heard that versionin oz on a duke box many years ago very sad to listen brian also wullei McBride another heart toucher just shows we are all as soft as sh.te underneath regards cappy

[cappy]

also one that always got me in the 60s was via condios told a few birds id be back wot a bleedin liar regards cappy

[Don Rafferty]

I've always found this version by June Tabor to be my favourite: June Tabor-The Band Played Waltzing Matilida - YouTube

Thought it was written by Eric Bogle

[Lou Barron]

It willbe Anzac Day next Thursday25th i do go but this year i think i will be giving it a miss it as got more popular now with the younger people than it use to yeays a ago we would go to the RSA after the service and sink a beers sometimes getting home a bit late and i would be as popular as pork pie in Jerusalem with the wife boy those were the days

[j.sabourn]

We held the ceremony of the Empty Chair the other day a week early due to other committments. A Colonel from a W.A. regiment made the Lecture and a CPO from the RAN played the last post. I always make a committment every year to visit at least one of the Lodges doing the Service. John Sabourn

[Kevin Mercer]

Brian #1, You would have to be made of stone not to be moved by that verse.

Kevin

[Don Rafferty]

A working link to the Cap'ns version - lovely voice: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - John McDermott - YouTube

[happy daze john in oz]

Thursday will be Anzac day here in Oz and NZ. No WW1 diggers left and those from WW2 getting less each year. Yet those still able turn up, some march, some take the army vehilces. But it is a great day, sad yet one filled with hope, hope that they did not die in vain. But when I look at the world today there are times when I question that.

[Richard Quartermaine]

My father, Richard was in the Queens Royal 9th Lancers for the duration of WW1 and below is a picture of him taken with his father Richard. He was born in 1897 at Stratford, London. I was told by him that he gave his age at 18 when in fact he was 17. He served in France and was shot through the chest with the enemy bullet passing out of his back.

On my first visit to the UK in 1947 his sister Lily, my aunt, handed me the pocket book pictured below to take to him. This thick pocket book apparently saved his life as the bullet would have passed through his heart instead of just missing it.

He was British through and through and never missed an ANZAC Day March whilst his health allowed and participated in true form to the usual follow up. He didn't have a fruit salad on his chest, got to lance corporal (and I believe that didn't last, he was such a larakin) but sported three medals which some of you may recognise in the photo below taken in the 1930s.

My dear old Dad had emphysema due to the mustard gas he had inhaled and died of a heart attack trying to breathe, in 1969.

Why am I writing this? Dad came to Australia in 1924 meeting my mother, Gladys on the SS Benalla on the way. The photo below, with my mother, has him wearing, very proudly, the jacket and cap I brought back from Halifax, Nova Scotia on my first trip. They reminisced a lot about England and would say they wanted to go "home" for a trip, but never did. I feel that whilst I am able, because of this site and the enormous good that it does in keeping alive things that really matter, I should share his memory with you all in Britain and across the World. For he was also a British sailor, discharge number 766789 and I will have in a way given him that trip home.

And thanks for those words and music which mean so much.

Richard
Dad and Grandad Q.jpgGladys and Richard 1947.jpgRQ Senior ANZAC March 1930s.jpgPocket Book.jpg