You ask me, Tommy, to tell you the really bravest deed
That was ever yet accomplished by one of the bull-dog breed,
And, although the hero was never so much as an O.B.E.,
I think I can safely pronounce it the bravest known to me.
It was not done in the trenches, nor yet in a submarine,
Mine-sweeper or battle-cruiser; it was not filmed on the screen;
For, though the man who performed it had three gold stripes on his sleeve,
It happened in Nineteen-Twenty, when he was in town on leave.
He was strolling along the pavement, a pavement packed to the kerb,
When he felt a sudden craving for China's fragrant herb,