Here Comes an Old Soldier from Botany Bay

Here Comes an Old Soldier from Botany Bay, commonly known as Here Comes an Old Soldier or just Old Soldier, is a nursery rhyme and children's game found in Australia, the United States, and the British Isles. The game and rhyme date to at least the late nineteenth century. ^[1]

Lyrics and performance

Here comes an old soldier from Botany Bay,
Have you got anything to give him to-day?

Mentions of children's games in the late 19th century describe it as a call and response game where others take turns to respond to the singer, with a prohibition of predetermined taboo words, typically yes, no, black, white, grey and sometimes other colours. ^[1] The child playing the soldier may beg items of clothing and then ask what colours they are, or otherwise enter into a conversation in the hope that the child questioned will forget what has been agreed, in which case they must pay a forfeit ^[1] or in some versions take on the role of the soldier. ^{[2] [3]}

Origin and variations

G. K. Chesterton wrote of the poem as a "beggars' rhyme" during his childhood in late nineteenth-century London, and quoted the words as thus:

Here comes a poor soldier from Botany Bay:
What have you got to give him to-day? ^[4]

Various other games incorporating the rhyme emerged in the twentieth century, most local adaptations that replaced the "old soldier from Botany Bay" with an "old woman from Botany Bay." ^[5]

In another version of the game, the player responding must also remember and correctly name all previous items given to the old soldier, before adding a new one to the list in their response.^{[ citation needed ]} This is similar to the game of "I packed my bag".

References

1. George Laurence Gomme, A Dictionary of British Folklore, (London: David Nutt, 1898), 24.
2. Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, (London: Henry Frowde, 1898), 339.
3. Edward Verrall and Elizabeth Lucas, What Shall We Do Now?: A Book of Suggestions for Children's Games and Employments, (London: Grant Richards, 1900), 10.
4. Chesterton, G.K. (22 December 1934). The Illustrated London News . Retrieved 7 September 2025.
5. Dorothy Howard, "Folklore of Australian Children", Keystone Folklore Quarterly 10, no. 1 (Spring, 1965): 103-104 & 115.