Forward Joe Soap's Army

DESCRIPTION: "Forward Joe Soap's army, Marching without fear, With our old commander Safely in the rear. He boasts and skites from morn till night And thinks he's very brave, But the men who really did the job Are dead and in their grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: derivative soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 127, "Forward Joe Soap's army" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: John Mullen, _The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War_, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 183, "(Forward Joe Soap's Army)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Onward Christian Soldiers" (tune)
NOTES [154 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver explains "Joe Soap" as "The American equivalent of 'Tommy Atkins'" -- but this is not correct. Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement), Macmillan, 1961, p. 1152, defines the name as "An unintelligent fellow that is 'over-willing' and therefore made a 'willing-horse': Services (esp. R.A.F.): since ca. 1930." It is believed to be rhyming slang for "dope" (as in "stupid person," not "drugs"). Thus Joe Soap might be anyone from the absentee colonel to General Sir Douglas Haig himself. Certainly Haig did more than his share to leave good and honest soldiers, most of them better men than he, in their graves.
Despite Partridge's c. 1930 date, Mullen unequivocally dates the song to World War I, which makes sense given that "Onward Christian Soldiers" was heavily used in religious services at the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: AWTB127A

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