Water To The Trenches

A song by Steve Barnes©2002 Steve Barnes

Born in eighteen hundred and ninety nine
You lived to the great old age of a hundred and three
As a boy you went to war on a godforsaken shore
To shoot at Christ knows who at Gallipoli
In sight of the Turkish lines, in range of the guns you climbed
To carry water to the trenches every day

You made it through, you were one of the lucky ones
Came home with a bellyfull of rage
You joined a railway gang, became a Union man
And fought for decent hours and a living wage
You stood for the working man, took the Union stand
And carried water to the trenches every day

Chorus:
Water to the trenches
Water to the trenches
Water to the trenches
Every day

They buried you with all the pomp and splendour
And talked about those few weeks of your life
No one made the point that the battle that you joined
Was bigger far than some colonial strife
How easy they forget that once they called you a Red
As you carried water to the trenches all your life

Water to the trenches
Water to the trenches
Water to the trenches
All your life

(Bridge)

Alec Campbell, my hat's off to you
But now you're gone it's time we moved on too
To carry water to the trenches...
For each other

Notes

Written about Railway Tasmanian Unionist and last Anzac. Alec Campbell.