HIS LITTLE BAGGY TROUSERS
THEY NEED MENDING BEFORE THEY SEND HIM TO THE DARDANELLES
According to Lynn, Charlie Chapin’s decision not to return to Britain and enlist was because a
clause in his film contract that forbade him to leave the United States of
America. The British public were none too pleased and Chaplin received quite a few letters containing white feathers which in those days was a sign of cowardice. A sheet-music firm in London published a set of lyrics to the tune of “Red Wing”, a song that had been
written in 1907 in America with music by Karry Mills (“ who also penned Meet me
in St. Louis Louis”), adapted from a piece of piano music by Schuman, and
lyrics by Thurland Chattaway, about an Indian Princess who lost her Brave.
The new lyrics became popular with troops during the
First World War, and referred to Charlie Chaplin’s apparent reluctance to
return to England and enlist.
Now the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
He’s going barmy to join the army
But his old baggy trousers they’ll need mending
Before they send him to the Dardanelles.
The moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
His shoes are cracking, for want of blacking
And his baggy khaki trousers still need mending
Before they send him to the Dardanelles.
Lynn goes on to
explain that “in the year of the Battle of the Somme" (which began in July 1916) ",..
the movie tents behind the lines in France continued to be filled with laughter
whenever Charlie Chaplin comedies were shown.” (p. 176)
Being able to
laugh must have had a positive effect on the morale of the troops who,
according to Kate Luard, a senior nurse in France during The First World War
who was a veteran of the Boer War, when they were frontline troops spent four days in the
trenches and four days resting in camps behind the lines.
“Unknown Warriors
The Letters of Kate Luard RRC and Bar, Nursing Sister in France 1914 – 1918”
Edited by John and Carolie Stevens and published by The History Press, Stroud,
Glos. 2014.
Picture: Cartoon by Bruce Bairnsfather - "The Last Man"
