"Tommy Atkins."

It was at one time the custom to supply every British soldier with a small pocket manual. In this manual was entered the name, the age, the date of enlistment, the length of service, the wounds, the medals of honor of the individual soldier.

The War Office in sending out Forms for information used the hypothetical name "Tommy Atkins," instead of "John Dow" or "Richard Smith," to be written in later. In this way "Tommy Atkins" was used to designate any British soldier. In the same way "Jack Tar" became the sobriquet of every British sailor. The British soldier under the name of "Tommy Atkins" has recently been made famous by the "Barrack-room Ballads" and other poems of Rudyard Kipling. One of the most popular of these is called "Tommy."