Talk:Digger (soldier)

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1 Slang
2 Tommy
3 Eureka Stockade
4 Not a national personification

[edit] Slang

I don't think that it still qualifies as "slang" - not since ... oh ... about 50 years ago. Also, it should be at digger, and the no-one-ever-heard-of-it computer game at Digger (computer game) or some such. Tannin 12:39, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I won't move it just yet not until it is a bit more fleshed out into a proper article. Tannin 12:39, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

There's also the diggers (ANZAC) to consider (digger had once been a redirect to the Diggers disambig page). It's only marginally better than this article. Geoff/Gsl 22:26, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Can any New Zealanders indicate whether "digger" is still in common usage in NZ? Geoff/Gsl 01:52, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

Im a New Zealander and we use digger when talking about pre-1920 new zealand military forces, and as casual slang for an enegetic or particuly militaristic child. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.150.112.55 (talk) 05:45, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tommy

Is there a source to substantiate the claim that World War I soldiers resented the name Tommy? If not the caveat should be removed. Philip Baird Shearer 12:12, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

In Patsy Adam-Smith's The ANZACs, Chapter 33:

Theo Ford [Sergeant, Australian 4th Field Artillery] remembers that 'by the end of 1917 we were all, Aussies and En-Zedders alike, calling one another "Digger".' The term was taken up by the folk back home and the men were happy about this, whereas the English soldier 'never liked "Tommy" because it carried the "Superior person's" view of his attributes'.

It's not clear to me whether the second "Tommy" quote is from Ford. Anyway, that's where the disputed sentence came from. "Resented" might be too strong a word, but the point I was making is that a digger would call another digger "Digger" while a Tommy would probably not call another Tommy "Tommy". Geoff/Gsl 08:58, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Eureka Stockade

On the Diggers (True Levellers) there is a statement "ANZAC troops in World War I were known as Diggers" on 25 September (today) user "213.130.244.29" added "this was a mark of respect for the gold diggers who took part in the Eureka Stockade" I have removed it and asked for a source. Is there any source which verifys this additional statement? Philip Baird Shearer 12:12, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I've never heard this one. The ANZACs says "it had been used among the miners in some units but it was from the New Zealanders, who took it from their country's gum-diggers, that the Australians adopted the term." Geoff/Gsl 08:58, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Not a national personification

I've removed this article from that category. The label digger doesn't really embody the nation as such, in teh way that America's Uncle Sam or France's Marianne does. It appears to be an embodiment of an ideal soldier rather than the nation itself. Rhialto 07:01, 23 October 2006 (UTC)