"Soldiers of the King" is a song written and composed by Leslie Stuart

Leslie Stuart

Leslie Stuart was an English composer of early musical theatre, best known for the hit show Florodora and many popular songs. Stuart began writing songs in the late 1870s, including songs for blackface performers, such as "Lily of Laguna"; songs for musical theatre; and ballads such as "Soldiers...

. The song is often sung and published as "Soldiers of the Queen" depending on the reigning monarch at the time.

The tune was originally composed by Stuart as a march celebrating the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal

Manchester Ship Canal

The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...

. The lyrics were added at a later date and the title changed. The song was then interpolated in the musical comedy An Artist's Model

An Artist's Model

An Artist's Model is a two-act musical by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and music by Sidney Jones, with additional songs by Joseph and Mary Watson, Paul Lincke, Frederick Ross, Henry Hamilton and Leopold Wenzel. It opened at Daly's Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes and...

(1895).

The song served as the regimental (quick) march of the Queen's Regiment, 1966 - 1992. It is also the Regimental March of the combined 2nd and 14th Light Horse Regiment

2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment

The 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment is a regiment of the Australian Army and forms part of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps. The regiment was formed in 1952 though sentimentally traces its lineage to 1860...

, Queensland Mounted Infantry {2/14LHR(QMI)} The song was sung by the public attending a farewell function in Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, Australia the day before the departure of the 1st contingent QMI, to the Boer War

Boer War

The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

 on 1/11/1899

It was used as the theme to the film, Breaker Morant

Breaker Morant (film)

Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian film about the court martial of Breaker Morant, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring British actor Edward Woodward as Harry "Breaker" Morant...

. BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 comedy programme The Harpoon

The Harpoon

The Harpoon was a BBC Radio 4 series broadcast between 1991 and 1994, written by Julian Dutton and Peter Baynham. It consisted of three four part series and two Christmas specials, and was performed by Julian Dutton, Peter Baynham, Susie Brann, Alistair McGowan and Mary Elliott-Nelson, and was...

, a show lampooning boys' magazines from Britain's Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 days of the 20th century, also used the piece as its opening theme—which is harshly interrupted mid-stanza by a page-turn.

The song has no connection to "The Soldiers of Our Queen", a quite different song which appears in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience

Patience (opera)

Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...

.

Lyrics

Britons once did loyally declaim

About the way we ruled the waves.

Every Briton's song was just the same

When singing of her soldier-braves.

All the world had heard it--

Wondered why we sang,

And some have learned the reason why--

But we're not forgetting it,

And we're not letting it

Fade away and gradually die,

Fade away and gradually die.

So when we say that England's master

Remember who has made her so

It's the soldiers of the Queen, my lads

Who've been, my lads, who've seen, my lads

In the fight for England's glory lads

When we've had to show them what we mean:

And when we say we've always won

And when they ask us how it's done

We'll proudly point to every one

Of England's soldiers of the Queen.

Source: Digital Collections - Music - Stuart, Leslie, 1864-1928. The soldiers of the Queen. Accessed November 1, 2008.