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TOMMY ATKINS.
All the world knows the dour Bri
tish soldier as "Tommy"—short for
Thomas Atkins. But not all the
world remembers the source of the
familiar and affectionate nickname.
Recent the London "Times" retold
the story of the original Thomas At
kins, a hero of the past, who died ai
Boxtel, a few miles north-west of Eind
hoven where the Second Army recently
fought so bravely to relieve the heroes
of the British airborne division.
In September, 1794, the "Times" re
calls the French were repelled after
an especially savage attack, when
Thomas Atkins, a soldier of twenty
years' service was mortally wounded.
Atkins asked that the stretcher
bearers should not move him, but al
low him to die in peace. douched
by the sight, his commanding officer,
a young man named Arthur Wellesloy,
moved to the side of the dying man,
who, seeing the grief in his colonel's
face, gasped out, "It's all right, sir.
It's all in a day's work."
Half a century later, the colonel,
then the aged Duke of Wellington,
stood Qfi the ramparts of Walma
Castle with an officer who had come
down from Whitehall with papers for
the Duke, with a request for a name
typical of the common soldier to be
inserted as a specimen signature.
As the Duke stood there, his mind
went back to his early days of cam
paigning and the episode of lliomas
Atkins stood out as a most vivid me
mory in a panorama of battles fought
half-way round the world.
"Private Thomas Atkins" was the
Duke's choice for a name to personify
the British soldier, and it has re
mained to this day.
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