Marching to Pretoria

DESCRIPTION: As commonly sung, about people sharing activities as they march to Pretoria. Traditional versions are more specific. Shanty Chorus: "We are marchin' to Pretoria, oh gloria, Victoria. We are marchin' to Pretoria, Victoria rules the waves!"
AUTHOR: unknown (common version "translated" by Josef Marais)
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Songs from the Veld by Josef Marais) (but see notes)
KEYWORDS: shanty army travel Africa food campsong
FOUND IN: South Africa Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p.425, "Pretoria" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 329, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 61, "Pretoria" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 33)
DT, MARPRET
ADDDITIONAL: Marais: Josef Marais, _Songs from South Africa: 14 Songs from the Veld_ (also published as _Songs from the Veld: 14 Songs from South Africa_; this name in fact appears on the title page!), G. Schirmer, 1942, pp. 28-29, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 English text, 1 tune, plus an Afrikaans verse and literal translation)
RECORDINGS:
Josef Marais and his Bushveld Band, "Marching to Pretoria" (Decca 18230A); later re-recorded by Joseph Marais and Miranda
NOTES [1046 words]: Hugill says he had to camouflage the shanty verses to the Pretoria tune to print them -- it is clearly a rewrite. - (SL, RBW)
I was surprised not to find this in the index already, considering how common I thought was. From what I could find it dates or at least refers to the Boer or Zulu war. - SL
It is not in the Index because it's rarely found in tradition. As best I can tell, it was fixed up by Joseph Marais and Miranda, based on a South African original, and the adaption has been sung very widely at camps -- typically on hiking expeditions. But only starting in the 1960s. Possibly the various versions should be split, but given the lack of field collections, it hardly seems necessary.
Hugill was the first time I'd met the sea version, which may be an alternate adaption. Although Cyril Tawney, on p. 63 of Grey Funnel Lines, reports that the tune was used as part of the melody for "The Oggie Song."
It would be very interesting to find the earliest version of this, to know the setting (including which Boer War it dates from). I've seen a number of web sites which give context, but none of them give any actual citations of anyone singing the song! Joseph Marais himself, in World Folk Songs, p. 60, says, "In 1939 I introduced this song to American audiences over NBC's Blue Network. Pretoria, of course, was the important objective of the British during the Boer War of 1901, the last of the so-called 'gentlemen's wars.' As both sides sang it, there was no recognizable set way of performance. I wrote English words and a definitive musical adaption...." All of which may be true, but Marais offers no evidence for any of it.
What's more, the mention of Victoria in the sailors' version would seem to imply a date before Queen Victoria died in 1901, i.e. before the second Boer War.
The opening conflict of the (first) Boer War came on December 20, 1880, at Bronkhorstspruit, when "264 officers of the 94th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria, were halted on the march by a Boer commando and ordered to turn back. The lieutenant-coloonel in command was given two minutes to reply to the demand. He refused to surrender and was killed by the Boers' opening shots" (Farwell, pp. 244-245). Most of the other British soldiers were killed as well.
Britain was defeated again early the next year, on February 26, 1881, At Majuba Hill, British General George Pomeroy Colley took his force onto high ground, but failed to create a defensive position; his forces were routed and Colley himself killed (van Hartsveldt, p. 4).
Rather than keep up the fight, the British negotiated, A year later, the Pretoria Convention would end the war. "It gave the South African Republic independence subject to a vague assertion of British suzerainty whatever that might mean" (van Hartsveldt, p. 5).
In the second (1899-1902) Boer War, Pretoria would again be key -- and the site of a lot of marching. On October 30, 1899, after their victory at Lombard's Kop, the Boers marched a number of British prisoners through Pretoria (Belfield, pp. 20-22).
On March 13, 1900, Frederick Singh Roberts captured Bloemfontein, then prepared to march on the Boer capital of Pretoria. He set out on May 3 and arrived June 5 (Belfield, pp. 95-100). That made it possible for British forces to capture Koomati Poort and cut the Boers off from all contact with the outside world (Chandler/Beckett, pp. 200-201). This did not end the war -- there would be two more years of guerrilla fighting, in which world opinion turned against England and the international situation became ever more complicated. But it was nearly the end of the direct military phase (and it earned Roberts an earldom and the command of the British army), and at the time it was thought it would end the conflict; the soldiers must have thought they were making the last big push.
Thus, a march to Pretoria could have been bad news for Britain or for the Boers, depending on the war and the situation. Or it could be about something else.
Marais-Veld, p. 29, admits that there are "other lustier, but unprintable, versions of this famous marching song." He then gives an Afrikaans verse, beginning "Klap julle handjies, alle bobbejaantjies, Darr's 'n groot fees, ou boeties." This verse is an invitation to "all little baboons" to join a feast. Thus the Marais version is sort of a composite: The chorus is from the marching song (about the attack on Pretoria, whoever made it), but Marais's verses, especially the second verse, "We have food and the food is good," is sort of a free riff on the invitation to the baboons.
One of the camp songbooks I checked claimed this was "sung by men returning from the diamond mines." This is perhaps possible -- Pretoria is not far from the diamond district -- but Marais gives no hint of it, and neither does any other authoritative source.
Abby Sale pointed out to me a song recorded by Ian Colquhoun with an orchestra, "Marching On Pretoria," recorded c. 1902 and released c. 1903, on Zonophone, matrix X-348. More information about it is available at https://www.flatinternational.org/template%5Fvolume.php?volume%5Fid=150 (checked July 24, 2023). It was recorded to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia." The recording transcribed at the site was apparently very hard to understand, but it suggests the initial words were
When the call to arms went forth [our hearts were ???] and glad
[??? those days and ???] the brave it bloody had.
Every English meadow yielded up its human lad
We March! March! March! on Pretoria.
Hooraah! Hooraah! Come hither sail they come.
Hooraah! Hooraah! They've made the [business ???] calm.
Round the world you heard the beat of Britain's ceaseless drum
When we went marching on Pretoria.
The site suggests that this is the original of "Marching To Pretoria." I think it patently not; "Marching to Pretoria" has four feet in all lines, while this has the standard 4343 meter, and the tunes are not the same, nor are there lyrics in common other than "marching" and "Pretoria." But it is not unreasonable to conjecture that one inspired the other. I incline to thing that "Marching To Pretoria" the original and "Marching On Pretoria" the derivative; despite its rousing tune, that text looks awfully flowery. - RBW
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