or Mr. Atkins or Tommy, subs. phr. (common).—(1) A soldier (of privates only); and (2) among soldiers themselves = a private’s pocket account-book. [On attestation forms and other documents occurs the sample name ‘THOMAS ATKINS.’ ‘I, “THOMAS ATKINS,” swear to do so-and-so.’ The same bogus name appears in the Mutiny Act; it is, in fact, a tradition of a century, and was popularised by Rudyard Kipling in Barrack-Room Ballads.] Fr. Dumanet.

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  1883.  G. A. S[ALA] [in Illustrated London News, 7 July, 3, 3]. In Tamil and Teluga ‘Rôtie’ means a loaf of bread. Long since Private TOMMY ATKINS, returning from Indian service, has acclimatised the word.

2

  1892.  KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘TOMMY’ [Title]. Ibid.

        God bless you, TOMMY ATKINS,
We’re all the world to you (?).

3

  1899.  HYNE, Further Adventures of Captain Kettle, iii. I am coming back again to give your … TOMMIES bad fits.

4

  1899.  H. WYNDHAM, The Queen’s Service, xli. 303. The British Soldier—I hate the term ‘THOMAS ATKINS,’ it is an impertinence and the expression of the shop-boy.

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  1901.  Pall Mall Gazette, 28 Nov., 2. 2. A nonconformist minister of the Colonial Missionary Society paid a high and well-merited tribute to MR. ATKINS last night.

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  1902.  Free Lance, 4 Jan., 346. 1. The Sisters of Nazareth … have done splendid work at the war, and not an officer or a TOMMY fails to bless the Sisters in black and blue.

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