Charles Allen Du Val

Songs Of Charles Henry Du Val

Charles Henry Du Val wrote many songs for his show "Odds and Ends", sometimes also composing the music.

Victorian songs in sheet form are very hard to find. Many must have been destroyed, and the few survivors are collectors’ items. None of Charley’s songs is now in print.

Bristol Mercury and Daily Post 15 April 1882

The Agony Column with added dialogue

Of these songs, some were popular ballads, such as Carissima and Thou Art So Near.

Others however were composed by Charley Du Val himself – both words and music. To make them topical he constantly changed the words of The Agony Column to suit the time and place.

His own song Bright Sparkling Wine was immensely popular wherever he travelled.

That was its full title, that Charley had shortened to look well in the typography of the advertisement which appeared in the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post on 15 April 1882– yet another of his skills!

Charles Henry Du Val set to music the words of The Red Cross of England, the Flag of the Brave by Eliza Cook 1818-1889.

Although his music has not been found, the patriotic words have survived:

"Old England! thy name shall yet warrant thy fame,
If the brow of the foeman should scowl;
Let the Lion be stirred by too daring a word,
And beware of his echoing growl,
We have still the same breed of the man and the steed
That wore nobly our Waterloo wreath;
We have more of the blood that formed Inkermann's flood,
When it poured in the whirlpool of Death;
And the foeman will find neither coward nor slave
'Neath the Red Cross of England the Flag of the Brave.

We have jackets of blue, still as dauntless and true
As the tars that our Nelson led on;
Give them room on the main, and they'll show us again
How the Nile and Trafalgar were won.
Let a ball show its teeth, let a blade leave its sheath,
To defy the proud strength of our might,
We have iron-mouthed guns, we have steel-hearted sons,
That will prove how the Britons can fight.
Our ships and our sailors are kings of the wave,
'Neath the Red Cross of England the Flag of the Brave.

Though a tear might arise in our women's bright eyes,
And a sob choke the fearful “Good-bye,"
Yet those women would send lover, brother, or friend,
To the war-field, to conquer or die !
Let the challenge be flung from the braggart's bold tongue,
And that challenge will fiercely be met;
And our banner unfurled shall proclaim to the world
That "there's life in the old dog yet."
Hurrah ! for our men on the land or the wave,
'Neath the Red Cross of England the Flag of the Brave !"