'Sarie Marais' was an old South African folk song often used by the Boer Commandos and quickly spread at home by soldiers coming back from the South African Boer War.
Later 'Sarie Marais' was often sung on the march by the Commandos during World War II and was particularly popular with the officers of the Union of South Africa Defence Force seconded to the Royal Marines.
My dear Sarah Marais is far away from me, But I hope to see her again. I met her before the outbreak of war In the Mooi River county.
Oh, I long to go back to the South African Republic, where my dear Sarie lives.
There, among the corn and the green thorn tree, there lives my dear Sarah Marais.
Captain F Vivian Dunn had made an arrangement of it for military band in 1937, it was officially adopted by the Corps in 1952 as the March Past of the Royal Marines Commandos and is played after the Regimental March on ceremonial occasions.
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