Ric-A-Dam-Doo, The (Ring-Dang-Doo (III))

DESCRIPTION: A version of "Ring-Dang-Doo (I)" localized to Canada: "The Princess Pat's Battalion They sailed across the Herring Pond... And landed there with the Ric-A-Dam-Doo." The song describes their disorderly conduct and some of the battalion's members
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative war
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 48-49, "The Ric-A-Dam-Doo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ring-Dang-Doo (I)" (euphemism) and references there
NOTES [341 words]: This is obviously a member of the extended family of "Ring-Dang-Doo" songs, but it is entirely about one particular group of soldiers, and largely free of the sexual references in the main entry, so I've split it.
As the song says, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was created in the first world war, named for Princess Patricia of Connaught (1886-1976), the granddaughter of Queen Victoria by her third son Arthur, Duke of Connaught. She later became the Lady Patricia Ramsey. The organizers of the Canadian unit presumably chose to honor her because she was, for a member of Victoria's family, relatively modern and easy to sympathize with.
After World War I, most Canadian infantry units were shut down. According to David J. Bercuson, Maple Leaf Against the Axis: Canada's Second World War, 1995 (I use the 2004 Red Deer Press edition), p. 16, apart from reserves, there were only three active-duty regiments retained, the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Royal 22e Regiment -- and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. It thus retained its coherence all the way until World War II, when one of its battalions was made part of the First Canadian Division -- the first Canadian unit designated for overseas deployment. Because of British and Canadian politics, it was some time before the First Canadian went into combat, but it was one of the units involved in the 1943 invasion of Sicily (Bercuson, pp. 152-153) -- an invasion mentioned in the next-to-last verse of Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear's text; one suspects that most of the rest of the song was written before that, when the division, and the Princess Pat's, were stuck in Britain waiting for something to happen. From Sicily, the Canadians went to Italy and became involved in the long slow slog up the peninsula. This was a very difficult, expensive campaign; the Princess Pat's were particularly hard hit in fighting along the "Hitler Line" near Aquino and the Liri River (Bercuson, pp. 187-188). But, like most Canadian units, they fought well. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk048

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