Roy Harris recorded McCafferty on The Bitter and the Sweet.

1 TURPIN HERO (with Notts Alliance)
2 THE BONNY GREEN WOODS (with Muckram Wakes)
3 THE DEATH OF BILL BROWN
4 THE THREE BUTCHERS (self-accompanied on guitar)
5 THE ULLSWATER PACK (with chorus)
6 POOR OWD 'OSS (with Notts Alliance)
7 GENERAL LUDD'S TRIUMPH (with Muckram Wakes)
8 POVERTY KNOCK (with combined groups)
9 THE STREAMS OF LOVELY NANCY
10 ROBIN HOOD AND THE TANNER (with Notts Alliance and Roger Watson, dulcimer)
11 THE 'ROYAL OAK'
12 STRIKE THE BELL (with Notts Alliance)
13 McCAFFERTY
14 ALL THROUGH THE ALE (with Roger Watson, concertina)

Recorded in Nottingham by Dick Swettenham 1971
First Published by Topic 1972
Notes by A. L. Lloyd
Sleeve Design by Humphrey Weightman
Illustration by Elizabeth Taggart
Photography by John Tams
Notts Alliance comprises: lan Stewart, Roger Grimes and Laurence Platt, with 2 melodeons,
piano-accordion, concertina, guitar, whistle, and tambourine.
Muckram Wakes (Derby based) consists of: Roger Watson, Helen Wainwright and John Tams,
with concertina, dulcimer, fiddle, bouzouki, whistle and drum

McCAFFERTY Of all traditional army ballads, this one leads
the most energetic life and is taken most seriously by its listeners. Who was McCafferty? Even his name is vague; some say
McCaffery. others McCassery. There's general agreement that
he served in the 42nd Regiment (i.e., the Black Watch). Most
versions name his depot as Fulwood Barracks, near Preston.
But as to the name of the captain whom the soldier meant to
kill, there's no concurrence at all - Hammond, Hamilton, Hanson, Neal, Nill, Nolan are but a few offered by singers. Much
is unexplained: the Black Watch has never been stationed in
Lancashire. And why should the trial, as generally agreed, take
place at Liverpool Assizes instead of by court martial? Most
likely the ballad is a dream conceived by a disaffected soldier,
perhaps Irish, some time in the latter half of the 19th century,
with the old 1798 Croppy Boy ballad at the back of his mind.
Anyway, if it's short on historical fact, it's evidently strong on
psychological truth for no other barrack room ballad so grips
the imagination. Roy Harris learnt it in the Royal Artillery in
1951.

We know more about McCafferty now!

Later in the nineteenth century, except when on active service, the army began to hand over offenders to the civil power in certain cases. Thus Private M'Caffrey was tried for his life, and sentenced to death for the murder of two of his officers, at Liverpool Assizes, in 1862. Roy Palmer, The Rambling Soldier

March 2021; Major General Nick Welch, who is believed to be the most senior officer to face court martial since 1815, was convicted of fraud following a four-week trial at Bulford military court in Wiltshire. Judge Advocate General Alan Large and a panel of senior officers jailed Welch for 21 months after a four-week court martial trial at Bulford Military Court. As well as his custodial sentence, which will be served in a civilian prison, Welch was told to pay the money back.