Bingo Nicknames #50

The Blind Half-Hundred / The Blind ‘alf ‘undred,

The Dirty Half-Hundred &

The Old West Kents

One of the earliest Bingo Nicknames, first recorded during the Boer War in 1900, came with the following amusing, but untrue, explanation:

“I was told … by one of the sergeants that their name for 50-“the blind ‘alf ‘undred” originated in a tradition that once upon a time the 50th regiment, roused in the night to scatter an approaching enemy, crept stealthily along till they believed they were near and then hurled themselves furiously against—a brick wall!”1

#50 nicknames in Regimental Bingo: The Blind Half Hundred, The Dirty Half Hundred or the Old West Kents, otherwise known as the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment

The nickname actually comes from the Egyptian campaign of 1801, where the regiment took part in Sir Ralph Abercromby’s expedition to Egypt. Many of the men suffered from ophthalmia.2 On the capitulation of Cairo, a report states that the number of men who had lost their sight from this disease, during the campaign, was 160, while 200 had lost one eye.3

Trachoma ophthalmia, also known as Egyptian ophthalmia, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. The infection causes a roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids. This roughening can lead to pain in the eyes, breakdown of the outer surface or cornea of the eyes, and eventual blindness. Untreated, repeated trachoma infections can result in a form of permanent blindness when the eyelids turn inward.4

Another Bingo nickname for The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment is the Dirty Half-Hundred, which originated from the Peninsular War, where the men wiped their faces with their black facings.25

Finally, the Royal West Kents are the only battalion to have three bingo nicknames, as 50 is sometimes called the as ‘Old West Kents’.6

1. An Anglo Indian in South Africa - Tommy on the Troopship, The Englishman, 28th June 1900
2. John Stephen Farmer & William Ernest Henely, A dictionary of slang and colloquial English, George Routledge & Sons, 1905
3. Arthur Evelyn Fyler,  The History of the 50th (or The Queen's Own) Regiment, Chapman and Hall, 1895, page 93
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophthalmia, Accessed 13th August 2025
5. Private Frank James Richards D.C.M., M.M., 1936, Old-Soldier Sahib, Faber & Faber, 1936, Pages 36 & 37
6. Sir Jahn Hammerton (ed), Gordon Stowell (Revising Ed), The New Universal Encyclopaedia Vol - 8 (Hans-Jane), The Educational Book Co, 1951 Page 4339