Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) a soldier; thus swadkin n.

1628		R. Speed Counter Scuffle B3: Wert not for vs, thou Swad, quoth hee / Wher would’st thou fog to get a fee?
1656		Mennis & Smith ‘The Reply’ Musarum Deliciae (1817) 80: Thou Swad, quoth he, I plainly see, / The Army wants no food by thee.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 6: Swad or Swadkin, a Soldier.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 14: Swad, or Swadkin, a Soldier.
1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 117: A Soldier A Swag [sic].
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 36/2: I think she had been drinking before I ‘copped’ her with the ‘swad’.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 668: Swad, or Swadkin. A newly raised soldier.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘To the Boys Who Took the Count’ Moods of Ginger Mick 104: Is it fair that a snob ’as the nerve fer to snout / Any swad ’cos ’is manners is free?