The song is by Fred Cape and it was first sung by Mel B Spurr, published in 1901. Not of much immediate help, Sue, but may be useful if you want to find the sheet music. This was a favourite of my father's, who must have heard it about the time it was first sung. I say 'heard' because he had obviously never seen it in print. The line 'I am a colonel in a little cocked hat' he sang as 'I knock a colonel into a contact' , which shows how easily songs can change (even into something meaningless!) in oral transmission.
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