Malcolm Douglas said "Kilgarriff (Sing Us One of the Old Songs, the standard reference on Music Hall repertoire) doesn't mention it so far as I can see, so likely later than 1920."

The song is included in a collection of sheet music called "An Evening at the Music Hall" edited and arranged by Cecil Bolton, compiled by John Whitehorn, with a foreword by Michael Kilgarriff (2000).

Kilgariiff says: "Anon's final contribution, They're Moving Father's Grave to Build a Sewer, is much more recent, probably c. 1930. I was once in a pantomime in which Frankie Howerd announced his intention to sing this 'beautiful old thing' only to be interrupted before getting started; for nearly forty years I thought this title was no more than that - a comic title. Seeing it in the list of contents gave me a deeply pleasurable frisson, and I am thrilled to discover that both the melody and lyrics are of a high order."

So, spot on, Malcolm!

LFF