From War is War (1930) by “Ex-Private X" [A. M. Burrage, 1889-1956]. British Army in France, 1917:

“One of the new arrivals is the only man I ever met who knew by heart a complete version of She was Poor but She was Honest. This was not a marching song but a parody on the dirges once beloved of street singers. It was not obscene, for the singer was forever pretending to pick up coppers and when he reached some apparently inevitable word he would check himself and say ‘Thank you kindly, lydy.’ I had known this terrible ballad since my schooldays, but only in the form of odd verses, and it was amusing to find a fellow who knew them all."