In the remembering, and in the retelling, of those war days when
laughter sometimes saved men's reason, Cockneys the world over have
left to posterity a record of noble and imperishable achievement.
From the countless tales collected by the London _Evening News_ these
five hundred, many of them illustrated by the great war-time artist,
Bert Thomas, have been chosen as a fitting climax and perpetuation.
Sir Ian Hamilton's story of another war shows that, however much
methods of fighting may vary from generation to generation, there is no
break in continuity of a great tradition, that the spirits of laughter
and high adventure are immortal in the make-up of the British soldier.
Sir Ian's story is doubly fitting. As President of the Metropolitan
Area of the British Legion he is intimately concerned with the
after-war welfare of just that Tommy Atkins who is immortalised in
these pages. In the second place, all profits from the sale of this
book will be devoted to the cause which the Higher Command in every
branch of the Services is fostering--the British Legion.
[Illustration]