[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

I'm not sure but it could just be that it was 'Night, God Bless'...in a contracted form......I am sure soldiers used to say something like(and Retlaw might be able to help out here)...'its all mi eye and something(can't remember the word) martin'....this saying was supposed to have its roots in a french saying...but was bastardised by troops who didn't understand the french language.
Well, that is unless anyone knows anything different.

I was always led to believe that it came from East Lancs soldiers, who were stationed out in the Middle East well before WW1, who had heard wog god botherers chanting something like all mia beit martaine, and refered to it as all my eye and Betty Martin, very much like the saying its all Greek to me.
Retlaw.