UBIQUE    

 

In the local British Legion

In a little backroom bar

Sat four ex-squaddies….. Cap badge proud

As squaddies always are

Long since retired

Old codgers all, this geriatric four

A Sapper, a Guardsman, a Para, a Marine

And each proud of his corps

 

Talk turned to battle honours

The history of the Guards

Where they’d been, and what they’d done

And all those old diehards

Tangier, Namur, Gibraltar

Blenheim and Alma too

Egmont-op-Zee, Sevastopol

And even Waterloo

What’s your lot done, they asked the Sapper

And they gave him a chance to speak

Tell us of your battle honours?

But the Sapper just whispered     Ubique.

 

 

The Para chipped in, as Paras do

A bewhiskered airborne guy

You’d always hear him bragging

About falling from the sky

And the Paras battle honours?

They’d notched up quite a few

The conflicts that they’d been involved in

Since they were formed in ‘42

Merville Battery, Primosole Bridge

Pegasus Bridge and the Rhine

Breville, Tamara, and Oudna

He said to the Sapper, what about thine

What were your lot doing?

While we were stuck up the Creak

Where are your battle honours?

But the Sapper just whispered    Ubique

 

 

The Marine had been biding his time

Determined to have his say

About the distinctions commandos had earned

Proud of the Green Beret

The Normandy Landings, Steamroller Farm

Vaagso, Norway and Crete

Kangaw, Flushing and Burma

The honours borne by the elite

Then he turned to the Sapper and said

As you’re the last one to join our tight clique

Tell us of you battle honours

But the Sapper just whispered    Ubique

 

 

You see Sappers don’t have battle honours

That’s what makes them unique

Wherever you’ve been they’ve been there too

That’s why they just say Ubique.

It may seem a terse answer

When said with little care

But when a Sapper says Ubique

It means they’re everywhere