<P> In his First World War autobiography Good - Bye to All That, the writer Robert Graves attributes the term "Blitey" to the Hindustani word for "home". He writes: "The men are pessimistic but cheerful . They all talk about getting a' cushy' one to send them back to' Blitey' ." </P> <P> The Music Hall artiste Vesta Tilley had a hit in 1916 with the song "I'm Glad I've Got a Bit of a Blighty One" (1916), in which she played a soldier delighted to have been wounded and in hospital . "When I think about my dugout," she sang, "where I dare not stick my mug out...I'm glad I've got a bit of a blighty one". Another Music Hall hit was "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" (1917). The song is sung by Cecily Courtneidge in the film, The L - Shaped Room . The term was also referenced in the song "All American Alien Boy" by Ian Hunter ("I'm just a whitey from Blighty"), from the 1976 album of the same name . Folksinger Ian Robb's album Rose and Crown features a topical parody of the traditional song, "Maggie Mae", about the Falklands War . The song contains the lines "When I get back to Blighty, I'll give thanks to The Almighty / Whether Maggie's little war is lost or won". </P> <P> UKTV operated a digital television channel called Blighty which opened in February 2009 and closed on 5 July 2013 . The subscription channel which concentrated on British - made programming was replaced by a Freeview channel called Drama . </P>

Where does the saying old blighty come from