I’ll Make A Man Of You From Oh! What A Lovely War

The army and the navy need attention
The outlook isn’t healthy you’ll admit
But I’ve got a perfect dream
Of a new recruiting scheme
Which I really think is absolutely it
If only other girls would do as I do
I believe that we could manage it alone
For I turn all suitors from me
But the sailor or the Tommy
I’ve an army and a navy of my own.

Chorus:

On Sunday I walk out with a soldier
On Monday I’m taken by a Tar
On Tuesday I’m out with a baby Boy Scout
On Wednesday a Hussar
On Thursday I gang oot wi’ a Scottie
On Friday the captain of the crew
But on Saturday I’m willing
If you’ll only take the shilling
To make a man of any one of you.

I teach the tender-foot to face the powder
That adds an added lustre to my skin
And I show the raw recruit
How to give a chaste salute
So when I’m presenting arms he’s falling in
It makes you almost proud to be a woman
When you make a strapping soldier of a kid
And he says ‘You put me through it
And I didn’t want to do it,
But you went and made me love you, so I did.’

Chorus:

On Sunday I walk out with a bosun
On Monday a rifleman in green
On Tuesday I choose a sub in the Blues
On Wednesday a Marine
On Thursday a Terrier from Tooting
On Friday a Midshipman or two
But on Saturday I’m willing
If you’ll only take the shilling
To make a man of any one of you.

*****