To the best of my knowledge and not for want of searching, the origins of this song have still not come to light. Most versions have been collected since 1950, i.e., during the current revival but can easily be backdated at least to WWI when the song was claimed to have been popular among horse artillery regiments. An Essex fragment purported to date back to c1906 is in the Roud Index and general concensus on a possible date is c1880. I'm pretty certain it was never issued as a Music Hall song sheet as I have been searching religiously since the 1970s and have a pretty large Music Hall collection myself. The song titled 'Scarlet & Blue' from WWI is a different song and the similar song by Harrigan & Hart The Blue & the Grey is a Civil War song. It doesn't warrant a mention in Winstock's 'Songs & Music of the Redcoats, 1642-1902' and doesn't appear in any of the WWI song books either official or collected from the men.

So.....where do we go from here?