Can anyone help Keith McKenry ?
Good wishes to all, John R
----- Original Message -----
From: "keith" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 6:39 AM
Subject: Inquiry about a song 'The Ramrod Corps'
> Dear Mr Radcliffe
>
> I am an Australian folklorist and historian, and am currently researching
> the background to a number of song fragments published in Australia in
> 1940.
> One of the fragments is an extract of a song, 'The Ramrod Corps'. This
> song
> seemingly is known otherwise only through a two line quotation by Kipling
> at
> the start of his story 'In the Matter of a Private', and through a passing
> reference to it in another Kipling story 'The Madness of Private
> Ortheris'.
>
>
> According to the www.kipling.org.uk website the song may or may not be by
> Kipling and in any event has not been traced. Your own Index to Kipling's
> Verse on the web also does not go beyond the quotation of the couplet from
> the song in Kipling's story. The song's appearance in Australia, albeit
> in
> fragmentary form, establishes however that it existed beyond Kipling's
> imagination. I am seeking to determine now if it is possible to find a
> complete text and/or tune. Hence this email to you.
>
> The complete fragment published in Australia goes as follows:
>
> Seventeen years ago today the Queen she wanted men;
> Fat men being very scarce, she couldn't get them then.
> So the Government they did meet one day,
> And a great big oath they swore -
> They'd make a handsome regiment
> Of the Gallant Ramrod Corps.
>
> Chorus
> Hooroo! Hooray! A soldier's life for me.
> Hooroo! Hooray! We're having a jolly spree,
> And we are so fat and handsome and the ladies all adore
> Sgt.-Major Johnny McMullin's the pride of the Ramrod Corps.
>
> The couplet quoted by Kipling is as follows:
>
> Hurrah! hurrah! a soldier's life for me!
> Shout, boys, shout! for it makes you jolly and free.
> -The Ramrod Corps.
>
> The similarity clearly is sufficient to establish we are dealing with a
> single song. It also is normal for versions of songs in oral circulation
> to
> show variation in text.
>
> The Australian fragment was submitted by an Alex I. Logan of Wodonga, who
> associated the song with 'memories of convivial nights spent around
> Malmsbury [a small town in Victoria] many years ago, who recalled the
> songs
> as being 'an old marching song of the volunteers'. Sadly, we no nothing
> more of it, and there is no possibility now of obtaining a complete text
> from the 1940 source, as all papers associated with the 1940 appearance
> have
> been destroyed.
>
> Are you able, now we have a ten line fragment of a version of the song, to
> shed any further light on it, or its origins?
>
> Hoping you can assist me (or point me in the direction of someone who can)
>
> Keith McKenry
>
>
>
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