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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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'better 'ole'
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In the Bystander for 24 November 1915 there appeared a cartoon of two British soldiers crouching in a small crater with shells falling all round them. The caption, 'Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it', became a World War I catch phrase. The cartoonist, Bruce Bairnsfather (1888–1959), was himself serving in the trenches. His two famous characters, featuring eventually in seven books of his Bystander cartoons, were Old Bill, a stoical cockney with a walrus moustache, and his feeble chain-smoking young companion, Bert.
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