Tommy Atkins

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MILITARY HISTORY. Tommy Atkins is the English soldier. The 'Tommy this, an' Tommy that', who singing marched with the Great Duke to the Danube, who joking broke the cavalry of France at Minden, who grumbling shattered Napoleon's dreams at Waterloo, who sweating in his red coat tramped back and forth across India, who kept up his six-rounds-to-the-minute at Mons, and who died in the mud at Passchendaele, the sands of the Western Desert, and the jungles of Burma. Successive Governments misused his talents and his loyalties, and he died without complaint to save them from their follies. His superiors often treated him with sickening brutality, and he repaid then with devotion. Often poorly fed and housed, woefully equipped, mercilessly worked, over-loaded and underpaid, this unique individualist continued to do his duty. Tommy won the respect and friendship of his allies and foes the whole world over.