Thanks for all the suggestions. I haven't heard Mary Ann for hand before; it was always German Band in the Black Country (although we didn't always use the same rhymes as Cockney RS). Wobbles is more English, isn't it, but it still sounds more like wopples to my rather deaf ears. Wills' Whiffs I remember well, and I guess it it was a non-slang alternative for gasper or fag. I shall certainly follow up the Music Hall Soc suggestion.

I'd found the writer/composer details on the web, but the label on my 78 doesn't have any info apart from the title & the performer; even the label name is covered by a duty stamp! (I think it's 'Scala Records'.)

Girl Friday, it was my grandfather (b 1905, I think) who got me interested as a tot, and my other gf. who got me started with the 78's.