Brave Tommies

Q. Tommies

A. British, or more particularly English, soldiers, especially 'other ranks', were for the best part of 200 years known generically as 'Tommy Atkins'. It's somewhat archaic now, though any boy of a certain age who read 'trash mags', those disapproved-of war comics, will be familiar with phrases such as, 'Ach, ze Tommies are comink,' or 'H�nde hoch, Englander Tommy pig.' (And you wonder why they were never on recommended-reading lists )

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Q. Why Tommy Wasn't John the most common Christian name in the 19th century

A. John and William were, indeed, the two most popular Christian names in England throughout the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. The origins of the term are, perhaps inevitably, disputed.

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Q. What are the options, then

A. One widely held theory is that the Duke of Wellington chose the name in 1843. His use of the expression is said to have been inspired by an incident which took place while engaging the French forces at the Battle of Boxtel in 1794. Wellington spotted among the wounded the right-hand-man of the Grenadier Company, who was dying of a sabre slash in the head, a bayonet thrust in the breast and a bullet through the lungs. He apparently looked up at Wellington and, thinking his commander looked concerned, said, 'It's alright sir. It's all in a day's work,' and then died. The man's name was Private Thomas Atkins and his heroism is said to have left such an impression on Wellington, that, fifty years later, when he was Commander in Chief of the British Army he recalled the name and used it as a specimen on a new set of soldiers' documents sent to him for approval.

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Another suggestion comes from an article in the Army Medical Services Magazine, which states that the War Office chose Tommy Atkins as a representative name in 1815. Specimen forms of the Soldier's Book issued for both the cavalry and infantry in that year have 'Tommy Atkins, his X mark' next to the space for the soldier's signature.

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It seems, however, that it was used as early as 1743. In a letter sent from Jamaica referring to a mutiny among hired soldiery we find: 'except for those from N. America (mostly Irish Papists) ye Marines and Tommy Atkins behaved splendidly'. (It's interesting to note that in the early 18th century English soldiers were also nicknamed 'Thomas Lobster' because of the red uniform coat. So the use of Thomas or Tommy was already current.)

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One final version refers to an incident during the Indian Mutiny in 1857. As the Europeans in Lucknow fled to the Residency for protection they came across a private of the 32nd Regiment of Foot on duty at an outpost. They urged him to join them, but he said he must remain at his post, where he was later killed. 'His name happened to be Tommy Atkins', wrote the Rev E.J. Hardy in 1900, 'and so, throughout the Mutiny Campaign, when a daring deed was done, the doer was said to be "a regular Tommy Atkins".'

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Continuing the colonial connection, the poems of Rudyard Kipling helped to popularise the name at the end of the 19th century, and especially during the Boer War of 1899-1902.

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Q. Did the soldiers use the name themselves

A. Certainly, by the First World War, by which time the usage had gained almost universal currency, British soldiers tended to use it in an ironic fashion, perhaps in imitation of the jingoistic tone of patriotic papers such as John Bull. However, the term did eventually become more acceptable to the 'ordinary British Tommy' and was used without irony by Empire forces from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as by the Americans, French and Germans.

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Q. What about Jack Tar

A. Jack - being a nickname for John, which as we've seen was the most common Christian name in England - Tar - short for tarpaulin - was, up to the mid-20th century, a nickname for sailors. (For some reason they were often deemed to be 'jolly'.) A tarpaulin, or tar, was a sailor's waterproof hat made from the tarred cloth of the same name.

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Q. Anything else

A. There's a British manufacturer of miniature toy soldiers called 'Tommy Atkins'. They only started up in 1992, so it's surprising no one had snapped up the name before.

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For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

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By Simon Smith