Lance
Corporal Jones
'After the Charge of the Light Brigade,
when a handful of the tattered survivors had staggered back to
the British lines, and as Lord Cardigan and Lord Raglan were arguing
as to whose fault it was, a ragged scarecrow of a Private soldier
stepped forward and saluted. His once brave uniform was covered
in the grime of battle. "Permission to speak"he said.
"Shall we go again sir ?" These few words sum up the
bravery of the British N.C.O.'s and private soldiers who over
the centuries have survived blunders and disasters, and have somehow
always come out on top. Such a man is Lance Corporal Jack Jones,
born in 1870.
At the age of fifteen he signed on
as a drummer boy, and a few months later he was in the sudan with
Sir Garnet Woseley's relief force, to save General Gordon from
being besieged in Khartoum. Alas, they arrived two days too late.
"Permission to speak, sir,"said Jones. "We should
have come a bit quicker." "Nonsense my man,"replied
the officer. "We had to stop to water the horses. Besides
better late than never."'
'Thirteen years later, Jones was
again serving in the Sudan, this time with General Sir Herbert
Kitchener,where at the Battle of Omdurman the Dervishes were finally
beaten. "Permission to speak, sir,"said Jones "We
gave 'em the old cold steel, they don't like it up'em."'
"That's the sort of fighting
talk I like to hear,"said General Kitchener. "Stick
with me and you won't go wrong." So Jones served with the
General in India on the North West Frontier, and in France in
1914. When the war was finally over Jones hung up his uniform,
and opened a small butcher's shop in Walmington-on-Sea. He thought
his soldiering days were over, but when in 1940 England was once
again threatened he didn't hesitate . At the age of seventy, he
joined the Home Guard. "Permission to speak, sir,"said
Jones. "I may be old but I can still give them the old cold
steel, and they don't like it up'em, you know, they do not like
it."
Jimmy Perry & David Croft
from "Dads Army" (Elm Tree Books 1975).
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