Sam's Medal
Showing the military importance of rum
Video not yet available
This monologue has been recorded and will be uploaded to the video gallery during 2026, where it will be available to watch for free - together with many, many other tales.
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One of many comic monologues featuring Private Samuel Small.
Most of the monologues in my repertoire were written by Marriott Edgar. Sam's Medal, however, was written by Mabel Constanduros and Michael Hogan. (Constanduros was a writer and actress who helped shape BBC light entertainment in the 1930s and 1940s.)
Written in 1933, very many listeners would have fought in the trenches of the First World War and known from bitter experience the importance of the daily rum ration.
For many, the perceived discrepancy between the awarding of medals to officers rather than private soldiers was a constant reminder of the class structure.
Abaht them 'ere monologues has a link not only to the text of Sam's Medal featuring the original illustrations by John Hassall.
More about other comic monologues on my website, and how I began to perform them.
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For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling