[Averil Thomas’s elder brother William (Billy) drowned June 1902 aged sixteen. ‘The absent-minded beggar’ was written to raise money for soldiers fighting in the Second Boer War, 1899-1902, and their families. Sales of the poem/song, sheet music and related merchandise raised substantial sums]

We all make history and even in quiet Melton [we] were affected by world affairs. Queen Victoria seemed almost a permanency, and it was a shock when she died [22 January 1901]. People who could never be called lovers of the monarchy put on some symbol of mourning. We listened attentively to anyone who had seen the funeral, and we learned at school to sing “God save the King”. 

The Boer War was over […] We had worn buttons with the heads of the various generals, which now were discarded. We had sung ‘Dolly Gray’ and ‘The Absent-minded Beggar’—I have a handkerchief which my brother [Billy] bought, of the words and music of that song by Rudyard Kipling. 

 […]

A vision of the ‘volunteers’ during the Boer War comes to mind every time I pass the town in the train. Volunteers who were decked in the army scarlet coats and helmets spiked on the top, used a field to drill in, which henceforth was known as the ‘Band Field’, presumably they formed also a band of bugles. The field was near a bridge over a railway and the bank gave us a good view of the activities of the volunteers. One of these was a William Bowley—the chief jeweller and watch maker in Melton and whose red coat was borrowed by Billy when at the school concert he sang ‘I’m a soldier of the Queen my lads.’