Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. England; used generically as leave, i.e. a brief visit back home to the UK (see cite 1918 ).

1801		G. Hadley Compendious Grammar (5 edn) 5: Bullattee, country, (corruption of Willaittee), particularly applied to Europe.
1866		G.O. Trevelyan ‘The Dawk Bungalow’ in Fraser’s Mag. Mar. 384: ‘O! Thank goodness, here’s a belattee Christian man!’.
1880		Cornhilll Mag. 41 71: An original genius sings a song of his own composition [...] about the difficulty of obtaining leave and the longing that is in all our hearts for a return to ‘Blighty ; dear old Blighty’.
1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: ’E won’t get a dib bar deferred, Bill — / Jest ’is ticket — an’ Blighty.
1901		Kipling Kim in McClure’s Mag. 463/1: ‘All police-constables are nut-cuts; but the police-wallahs are the worst. Hai, my son, thou hast never learned all that since thou earnest from Belait (Europe)’.
1914		‘When This Ruddy War Is Over’ in C.H. Ward-Jackson Airman’s Song Book (1945) 10: When this ruddy war is over [...] Then we’ll catch the train for Blighty.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘A Digger’s Tale’ in Chisholm (1951) 100: I’ve been reel cobbers with the British toff / While I’m on leave; for Blighty liked our crowd, / An’ done us proud.
1918		Sun (NY) 19 May 8/1: ‘Blighty,’ as every one knows, is the British Tommy’s slang for leave. Tommy [...] takes his ‘at ’ome’ across the Channel.
1920		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 13 Mar. 8/2: [headline] ‘Straight to Blighty’.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 59: Sometimes when I took my girl out in Blighty we would go into a hotel.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 235: ‘Why, the cow’s no sooner back than he’s off to Blighty again’.
c.1939		B. Bennett ‘A Sailor’s Farewell To His Horse’ Billy Bennett’s Fourth Souvenir Budget 11: And I’m sure that we’ll never reach Blighty.
1940		Indian Exp. (Madras) 2 June 11/4: The men were in amazingly high spirits, and carriage doors were scrawled with such slogans as ‘Back to blighty – but not for long’ and ‘Look out Hitler, we have not started on you yet’.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 153: I remember how they talked of Africa [...] and would they ever get back to Blighty.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: I could have flogged it for a fortune back in Blighty.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner & Escort’ Cockade (1965) I iii: Didn’t it get in the papers in Blighty?
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 42: All the kit with which we had been equipped before leaving Blighty had to be turned in. [Ibid.] 191: He’d have every malaria case shipped home to the Blight!
1975		(con. 1930s) in C. Allen Plain Tales from the Raj 196: They’d sing: ‘Oh doolally sahib, fifteen years you’ve had my daughter, / and now you go to Blighty, sahib. / May the boat that takes you over / sink to the bottom of the pani, sahib!’.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 262: They’re all going back to Blighty.
1993		M. Dibdin Dying of the Light 109: Got as far as Ostend that time, and would have made it back to Blighty if I hadn’t been turned in by some bloody Belgian.
1999		Indep. Mag. 14 Aug. 23: Back in Blighty [...] St Tony Blair was busying himself with plans to ban fox hunting.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 58/2: Skinheads were the big hubbub back in Blighty.
2007		Camden New Journal 30 Aug. 29: School is a labour of love for Malaysian who fell in love with Old Blighty.
2011		Eve. Standard 17 Feb. 16/2: She is showing a touching concern for local politics back in Blighty.
2023		M. Chepa in JohnSweeneyRoars! 9 Oct. 🌐 Here in Blighty, I can feel the kindness of the British people.

2. thus Blighty one, Blighty wound, a wound gained during WWI that was sufficiently incapacitating to ensure one’s being sent home to England from the front; also used for other wars.

1916		E.G. Dodd diary 23 Dec. 🌐 Jim Carlton was knocked yesterday will get a Blighty out of it.
1916		D. Carr letter 11 Sept. in Morse The Vanguard of American Volunteers (1918) 89: I believe we are going to hop the parapet, so there is a good chance of my getting back to England with a ‘blighty’ within the next week.
1916		V. Tilley ‘I've got a bit of a blighty one’ 🎵 When they wipe my face with sponges/ and they feed me on blancmanges/ I’m glad I’ve got a bit of a blighty one.
1917		W. Muir Observations of Orderly 223: ‘A blighty wound,’ or simply ‘a blighty’ an injury sufficiently serious to cause the victim to be invalided to England.
1918		Darewski & Wimperis [perf. Vesta Tilley] A Bit of a Blighty One 🎵 I’ve a bit of a blighty one, but nothing to speak of, / A bit of a blighty one, that’s all .
1919		Aussie (France) XII Mar. 14/1: D is for the Doctor who knows all the jokes / Put up to get Blighties by leg-pulling blokes.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 60: ‘Is Blue all right?’ [...] ‘Yes, got a Blighty. Couple of leg wounds.’.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 345: Blighty-One. A wound severe enough to cause a man to be sent to England for treatment.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 75: One o’ the men on the firestep was ’urt too, but they said it was only a nice blighty one. [Ibid.] 231: Did very well in the attack, too, and got a nice Blighty.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 91: Wallace with a Blighty — one of the carrying party had seen the stretcher-bearers pick him up.
1939		A. Bessie Men in Battle 236: I was hoping to get hit [...] I’ve been wanting a nice little blighty one.
1943		Sydney Morn. Herald 11 Dec. 7/3: If a man is wounded he gets a ‘Blighty’ [...] or a ‘homer’.
1964		B. Hesling Dinkumization or Depommification 48: Yeah, Salford, in hospital. I had a blighty.
1980		A. Payne ‘All Mod Cons’ Minder [TV script] 58: I grew up in that house, Arthur. Remember my old man coming back with a blighty one.