Summary

Booklet of camp songs, 'well-known and popular parodies', published in Melbourne and written by V.C.Marshall, for use in Broadmeadows and other camps for embarking soldiers. The songs include 'Till the Stew in the Dixie Grows Cold' and 'The Beloved M.P.'

This copy was given to Miss Elsie Storie of Brunswick, later of Canterbury, in September 1916, by Private Roland William Hosken, No. 2432, 5th Reinforcement 58th Battalion, 15th Brigade, AIF, just before he embarked for Europe. Private Hosken, a farmer from Lake Boga whose father lived close to Miss Storie's family, died in France in 1917.

This booklet is part of a larger collection of paper-based ephemera that was collected by Mr Millward, from a rubbish skip at the factory where he worked on its closure several years ago. The material, contained in a box, was part of a deceased estate of Miss Elsie Storie; it may have been discarded by a director of the factory who had acted as Miss Storie's Executor. As a group, the material allows us insight into aspects of the life of a middle-class Melbourne woman who was born circa 1895, lived through both wars, and remained in Melbourne all her life.

Interestingly, one of the songs in the book, 'Till the Stew in the Dixie Grows Cold' is transcribed in the diary written by World War I soldier Alfred Galbraith (ST 041196).

Physical Description

Booklet, 16 pages, entitled 'Camp Songs: Till the stew in the dixie grows cold, The Beloved M.P., and other well-known and popular parodies, by V.C.Marshall', price 6d. Other songs include 'Silly Billy' (sung to the air 'Clementine' and about the Kaiser; 'Boys from the Broadmeadows Camp'; 'Deep in Sleep'; 'Where the bully beef has rested'; 'Two brown biscuits'; 'A Rainy Day'; The Turks Lament' and 'The Kaiser's Snap'. Printed by Taylor and Son, Melbourne, c.1916.

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