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Digger (soldier)

 

 
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Digger (soldier)
 
 
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Digger is a New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
 and Australian military slang term for soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s from New Zealand and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. It originated during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
.

There are numerous theories about the origin of the term. Before the war, the term "digger" had been widely used in Australasia
Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes ....
 to mean a miner
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
, or a Kauri gum-digger
Gum-digger

Gum-diggers were men and women who dug for Agathis australis gum, a Fossil resin, in the old kauri fields of New Zealand at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....
 in New Zealand. On 25 April 1915, General Sir Ian Hamilton
Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton

General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton Order of the Bath Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Territorial Decoration was a general in the British Army and is most notably known for commanding the ill-fated Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Gallipoli....
 sent a message to the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (army corps)

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was a World War I corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli....
 (ANZAC), General William Birdwood
William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood

Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, Order of the Bath, Order of the Star of India, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, Order of the British Empire, Order of the Indian Empire, Distinguished Service Order was a First World War British general who is best known as the commander of the Australian a...
, following the landing at Gallipoli
Landing at Anzac Cove

The landing at Anzac Cove was part of the Amphibious warfare invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by United Kingdom and France forces on April 25, 1915....
. It contained the postscript
PostScript

PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. PostScript is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas....
: "P.S.—You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig, until you are safe." However, there is no hard evidence to support the theory that Hamilton's message is the reason why digger was applied to ANZAC troops in general.






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Digger is a New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
 and Australian military slang term for soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s from New Zealand and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. It originated during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
.

There are numerous theories about the origin of the term. Before the war, the term "digger" had been widely used in Australasia
Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes ....
 to mean a miner
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
, or a Kauri gum-digger
Gum-digger

Gum-diggers were men and women who dug for Agathis australis gum, a Fossil resin, in the old kauri fields of New Zealand at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....
 in New Zealand. On 25 April 1915, General Sir Ian Hamilton
Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton

General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton Order of the Bath Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Territorial Decoration was a general in the British Army and is most notably known for commanding the ill-fated Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Gallipoli....
 sent a message to the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (army corps)

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was a World War I corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli....
 (ANZAC), General William Birdwood
William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood

Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, Order of the Bath, Order of the Star of India, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, Order of the British Empire, Order of the Indian Empire, Distinguished Service Order was a First World War British general who is best known as the commander of the Australian a...
, following the landing at Gallipoli
Landing at Anzac Cove

The landing at Anzac Cove was part of the Amphibious warfare invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by United Kingdom and France forces on April 25, 1915....
. It contained the postscript
PostScript

PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. PostScript is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas....
: "P.S.—You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig, until you are safe." However, there is no hard evidence to support the theory that Hamilton's message is the reason why digger was applied to ANZAC troops in general. W. H. Downing, in Digger Dialects (1919), a glossary
Glossary

A glossary is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glossary appears at the end of a book and includes terms within that book which are either newly introduced or at least uncommon....
 of words and phrases used by Australian personnel during the war, says that Digger was first used to mean a New Zealand or Australian soldier in 1916. It appears to have become popular among New Zealand troops, before being adopted by Australians. The word was not in wide use amongst soldiers until 1917. One other theory is the fact that ANZAC troops were especially good at digging tunnels between their own trenches and the enemies, and were regarded by both sides as diggers, one being derogatory and the other more in jest. The job of digging between the trenches was very hard, especially when both sides' diggers met in the tunnels. ANZACS believed that it was a compliment to be referred to diggers, because it indicated you were good at a very difficult job.

While New Zealanders would call each other "Digger", all other nationalities, including Australians, tended to call them "Kiwi
Kiwi (people)

Culture of New Zealand#Kiwi is the nickname used internationally for people from New Zealand, as well as being a relatively common self-reference....
s". The equivalent slang for a British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 soldier was "Tommy" from Tommy Atkins
Tommy Atkins

Tommy Atkins is a term for a common soldier in the British Army that was already well established in the nineteenth century, but is particularly associated with World War I....
. However, while the Anzacs would happily refer to themselves as "Diggers", British soldiers generally resented being called "Tommy".

Throughout Australia when one refers to "digger", one is referring to the Australian Army.

Between 1998 and 2003, the term was used in the name of a team in the Victorian Football League
Victorian Football League

The Victorian Football League, formerly known as the Victorian Football Association is the premier league in Victoria. It is also known as the VFA/VFL, is the second-oldest Australian rules football league, formed in 1877, replacing the loose affiliation of clubs that had been the hallmark of the Australian Rules Football - Early...
, the Bendigo Diggers
Bendigo Bombers

The Bendigo Bombers are an Australian rules football club based in Bendigo, Victoria, Victoria , Australia playing in the Victorian Football League ....
. This was partly in reference to Bendigo's history as a centre of the gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
-mining industry. The team changed its nickname to "Bombers" when it became a feeder club for Essendon
Essendon Football Club

Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club and is part of the Australian Football League. Formed in 1871 as a junior club and as a senior club in 1873, it is Headquarters at the Essendon Recreation Reserve, Windy Hill, Essendon in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon, Victoria, but match day home...
. In 2001, Athletics Australia
Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia is the peak body for all Athletics activity in Australia.First founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 34,000 registered athletes, coaches and officials....
 suggested that it would use "Diggers" as the nickname
Nickname

A nickname is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. Another class of nickname is the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, such as Bob, Bobby, Rob, Robbie, and Bert for Robert, more properly called a short name....
 of the Australian athletics
Athletics (track and field)

Track and field athletics, commonly known as athletics or track and field, is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing and jumping....
 team. The proposal was withdrawn after a public outcry and protest from the Returned and Services League of Australia
Returned and Services League of Australia

The Returned and Services League of Australia is a support organisation for men and women who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force ....
.

John Campbell Ross
John Campbell Ross

John Campbell "Jack" Ross is, at the age of 109, Australia's oldest man and the last Australian veteran of the First World War. He currently lives in Bendigo, Victoria....
 (born 11 March 1899) is the last surviving Digger from World War I.

See also

  • ANZAC spirit
    ANZAC spirit

    The Anzac spirit or Anzac legend is a concept which suggests that Australian and New Zealand soldiers possess shared characteristics, specifically the qualities those soldiers are believed to have shown on the battlefield in World War I....
  • Digger slang
    Digger slang

    Digger slang, also known as ANZAC slang or Australian military slang, is Australian English slang as employed by the various Australian armed forces throughout the 20th and 21st centuries....
  • Slouch hat
    Slouch hat

    A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt hat with a chinstrap most commonly worn as part of a military uniform. It is a survivor of the felt hats worn by eighteenth century armies....
  • Gunnie
    Gunnie

    Gunnie is the term used in the Royal Australian Airforce referring to an armourer or aircraft tradesperson who maintains, aircraft ordnance, weapons, ejection seats or any other device that contains explosive material used in the RAAF....


Further reading