What a glorious thing it is to know,
That the breed is just the same,
As it was when the Anglo-Saxon race,
First gain'd immortal fame,
What a glorious thing it is to know,
When danger's hour was nigh,
When the mighty liner sank to her rest,
Our men know how to die
Descriptive Passage: (Spoken to the tune "Horbury" - Nearer My God to Thee - played by strings.
Then rose a scene of courage, of duty to be done
and men behaved like men should do, all heroes every one.
Millionaire and poor man's son, when she was sinking fast,
worked like Britons side by side all faithful to the last
and though they found a cold, cold grave beneath the icy seas.
Up on high these words were heard, Nearer My God to Thee.
With men like these we still can boast and as of old can sing
O death, where is thy victory, O grave, where is thy sting. [Note 114.1]
Chorus : Be British! Was the cry as the ship went down,
Ev'ry man was steady at his post,
Captain and crew, when they knew the worst:-
Saving the women_and_children_first¹,
Be British! Was the cry to ev'ry one,
And though fate had prov'd unkind
When your country to you pleaded
You gave freely what was needed,
To those they left behind
Thro' the years to come, inscribed in gold,
On hist'rys pages shall be
The story of how they met their doom
Out on the icy sea
And our children's children all will read,
Throughout the Empire wide
These grand old words, and in days to be,
Will echo them with pride