Sawdust Fusiliers

They left their homes in Canada bound for a foreign land
Their skills lay in felling trees with saw and axe in hand
They crossed the North Atlantic to far off Devonshire
To assist dear old Blighty, those Sawdust Fusiliers

They came in nineteen sixteen, the darkest days of war
To fell the trees in Stover park as never seen before
With sweat of their brow and hearts that knew no fear
Felling trees for the common good, those Sawdust Fusiliers

Bushmen and sawmill hands wanted
Come and help the motherland defeat the common foe
Bushmen and sawmill hands wanted
So the posters told us so off we must go

By the time they had finished, seven hundred acres gone
They'd played their part in a war that still was raging on
Working hard. felling trees, their commitment didn't veer
For King and country, those Sawdust Fusiliers

Bushmen and sawmill hands wanted
Come and help the motherland defeat the common foe
Bushmen and sawmill hands wanted
So the posters told us so off we must go

The wood was shipped from Stover via Teignmouth to the front
Used for a barricade, an emplacment for a gun
Trench floors, ammo boxes, and countless railway sleepers
The result of hard labour for the fight against the hun

Once the war was over many stayed and settled down
The park was then replanted with saplings in the ground
The memory of those foresters is oh so dear
There now stands a memorial to those Sawdust Fusiliers

Bushmen and sawmill hands wanted
Come and help the motherland defeat the common foe
Bushmen and sawmill hands wanted
So the posters told us so off we must go

In a quiet glade wooden sculptures so very very fine
Of a horse and two young foresters frozen now in time
Never to be forgotten let's raise a glass and cheer
To immortalise those fine bold boys, those Sawdust Fusiliers
The Sawdust Fusiliers