‘not everyone who graduates goes on to take the Queen's shilling’
‘It was changed from New Inn in 1881 because of a feeling of patriotism at the time, and also because this was the place where people could take the King's shilling and join up for the army.’
‘The soldier was no longer an individual who simply took the King's shilling for lack of alternative, but a symbol of a national cause and thus, potentially, a hero.’
‘I know he took the Queen's shilling when he signed up and when I signed his papers I gave him my blessing and knew he would see active service, it's just very difficult not knowing.’
‘‘That's what they signed up for, they took the Queen's shilling and you have to do your job,’ she said.’
‘Geoffrey was just 19 when he followed in his father's footsteps and took the King's shilling.’
‘If you take the Queen's shilling, then you have to expect it.’
‘They took the Queen's shilling without asking too many questions about what it involved.’
‘Tom takes issue with the expression, ‘taking the King's shilling’.’
‘As much as I hate federal requirement and restrictions, it seems to me that he who takes the King's shilling must do the King's bidding.’
‘Except in certain rural areas, ‘to go for a sodger’, ‘to take the King's shilling ’, had for ordinary people been an act of desperation in a time of unemployment or personal catastrophe.’
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