I am a rambling Royal, from Liverpool I come,
And to my sad misfortune I enlisted in the Marines,
Being drunk when I enlisted and not knowing what I’d done,
Until my sober senses returned to me again.

I had a girl in Birkenhead, a true friend as it seems,
It grieved her heart and made her smart to see me in the Marines.
She said, If you desert, my boy, then quickly let me know,
And I’ll hide you in my own room if you should choose to go.

It was at Chatham depot, boys, the officer gave command
That me and my loyal comrades that night on guard should stand.
The night being wet and dark and cold with I did not agree,
So I knocked out the guard-room corporal and I ran for liberty.

I rambled all that livelong night until I lost my way.
I crept into a farmer’s barn to sleep upon they hay.
And when I awoke, it was no joke, for there all at my head,
The sergeant and the corporal and four bloody squaddies stood.

We had a murderous fight of it and I damn nigh beat ’em all.
I made my cowardly comrades in agony to bawl.
But they took me to the guardhouse my sorrows to deplore.
They’d six pen at the window and another six at the door.

It was early the very next morning I paced my cell around,
I leapt out of the window and dashed four of ’em to the ground.
The provost and his bullies they were quickly after me,
But I made my way to Birkenhead and I gained my liberty.

I am a rambling Royal and James Cronin is my name,
I can fight as many corporals as you’ll find in the Marines,
I can fight as many Orangemen as ever banged a drum,
And I’d make ’em fly before me like a bullet from a gun.