Wartime marching song in tribute to the brave Staffords

SIR WITH November 11 tomorrow and the many special 100th anniversary services marking the end of the First World War, my thoughts have been of my own grandfather and his brother, Simeon and Joe Gould, of Hanley, of the 5th North Staffs, who were killed in action.

Simeon’s wife Eliza (my grandmother) was left to bring up four very young sons, the eldest being six-years-old.

They were very hard times for them. My grandma very rarely spoke of those terrible times, but she used to sing a marching song to me in my childhood, which from my memory went something like the following: “We are the 5th North Staffs, We are the 5th North Staffs, We know our manners, We earn our tanners, And we are respected wherever we go, And marching along, Doors and windows open wide, Then the band begins to play, Hi-tiddly -hi-tee-hi-tee hay, We are the 5th Norths Staffs.” I shall be singing this on the 11th in memory of all the local men and boys, and the millions of other soldiers, who died in that terrible war. MICHAEL GOULD Wolstanton