Mademoiselle of Armentières is arguably one of the war’s most famous songs.

It has been said that almost everybody had their own version, with lyrics adapted to reflect their experiences. Some versions lampooned officers and the misery of life in the trenches. Others poked fun at the quirks of soldiers of other nations, as well as of the enemy. Many versions paid tribute to the ‘mademoiselle’ – who ranged from a simple country girl working in an estaminet or bar to notorious versions about French sex-workers.

Rather than a bawdy soldier’s ditty, Pat Hanna’s lyrics turn the song into a mournful tale of a doomed wartime romance. Hanna was a member of "The Kiwis" concert party, and after the war, formed “The Diggers” party which toured Australia and New Zealand in various forms throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s.

The Diggers’ vaudeville shows appealed to returned servicemen, who were able to bring their wives and families along to their local theatre to share something of their largely-unshareable war experience, the songs they remembered and skits based on the humour and pathos of the war.

As early as 1926, this song was being performed at concerts by “The Diggers” in New Zealand, with a review in the New Zealand Herald on 1 March 1926 noting: “In a long list of moving scenes; gay, droll and pathetic, a plausible little musical sketch entitled Mademoiselle from Armentieres may be singled out for mention. It begins on a rollicking note to some verses based on the notorious soldier’s chorus but ends with a breath of tragedy and a tear".

In 1931, Pat Hanna adapted the skit as one of the scenes in his film Diggers, which ends with a weeping mademoiselle tragically clutching the fallen Australian’s slouch hat.

Mademoiselle from Armentières (Parlez-vous)
Sang the Diggers between their beers (Parlez-vous)
And the chorus roared by soldier’s gay, rang through the old estaminet
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous
There were men from Britain and USA (Parlez-vous)
From Cape and Canada and Bombay (Parlez-vous)
From New Zealand far across the seas and Britain’s far-flung colonies
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous
And a young Australian, tall and brown (Parlez-vous)
Watched Mademoiselle as she tripped around (Parlez-vous)
And her heart was in a rapturous whirl when he told her she was his dinkum girl
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous
And they laughed and loved in that old French town (Parlez-vous)
And the soldier gazed in her eyes of brown (Parlez-vous)
But by-and-by there came a day when he and his cobbers all marched away
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous
And they all marched up the old highway (Parlez-vous)
Past Mademoiselle’s estaminet (Parlez-vous)
[Female voice] Goodbye ma cheri.

[Church bell tolls – Tempo change – funereal]

Down at Bullecourt he fell (Parlez-vous)
No word came back to Mademoiselle (Parlez-vous)
And a little French girl with eyes of brown, prays for him still in that war-swept town
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous
Quiet the old estaminet (Parlez-vous)
No more Diggers will come that way (Parlez-vous)
May your heart grow lighter with passing years, oh Mademoiselle from Armentières
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous.