G'day everyone,

This is off the top of a badly remembered conversation, but a friend, who was chasing the copyright situations of kids' songs (he does shows in schools) told me there was an existing British song ... it was heard and (more or less) remembered by an American serviceman/singer ... and he published a version after he was demobbed.

As America did not respect anyone else's copyrights, at that point (finally dragged into the Berne Convention later that decade), he copyrighted it ... for America ... and that's the version the Americans know. I 'm sure I have the older, British, one in collection of World War Songs.

Regards,

Bob Bolton