Tommy Atkins
"Tommy Atkins" is a long-standing name for a British Soldier (hence "Tommies") and has been used in the titles of a number of performance pieces (poems, songs, plays, etc.) over the years.
It is also the name of a famous mango cultivar.
Tommy Atkins in performance
The poem Tommy[1], featuring "Tommy Atkins", was written and published by Rudyard Kipling in 1890 poem and reprinted in 1892 in Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads.
In 1893, Henry Hamilton (lyrics) and Samuel Potter (music) wrote the song "Private Tommy Atkins"[2] for the musical play A Gaiety Girl ()
In August, 1898, Robert W. Paul directed Tommy Atkins in the Park a short silent comedy film about a soldier and a serving-girl who are courting on a bench, when a fat old lady sits on the bench, interrupting them. Director:
In 2014 Peter Gill created and performed a one-man play called Meet Tommy Atkins as part of the centenary of the First World War (1914-1918).
