Joe

I saw your thread title shortly before setting off to walk down to the village for Remembrance Day at the War Memorial, and thought "I know that song - it's on an old tape by an Irish group". I've known it since the '90s on a cassette album by the Irish folk group Brier called "The Sick Note", and I found the track on Youtube, but the words there are closer to the garbled Foster & Allan version than to what Brier actually sing. Here is what I hear them singing, with words in bold where they differ from your posting.

It was on a summer's evening when all the world stood still
Two lovers rambled down a lane to an old and whirring mill
He was leaving on the morrow for a land far far away
And as she nestled close to him she heard him softly say

I'll return my little sweetheart, in the Spring
And for us those wedding bells will gaily ring
And when all the wrongs are righted
Our hearts will be united
I'll return my little sweetheart, in the Spring

On the quay there stands a soldier in uniform so bright
He's waiting for the big troop ship to take him to the fight
For the bugles they are blowing and the masts are pointed high
And as the cable settled down from below there comes a sigh

I'll return my little sweetheart, in the Spring
And for us those wedding bells will gaily ring
And when all the wrongs are righted
Our hearts will be united
I'll return my little sweetheart, in the Spring

In a cottage by the fireside sits a maiden young and fair
And as the tears roll down her cheeks, the letter she had there
And as she read it o'er and o'er it was more than she could bear
For e'er the morning dawned on her she was gone for all most fair

So they laid in her in a graveyard in the Spring
And for her those wedding bells would never ring
For among the dead and dying her soldier boy was lying
When they laid her in a graveyard in the Spring

I'll return my little sweetheart, in the Spring
And for us those wedding bells will gaily ring
And when all the wrongs are righted
Our hearts will be united
I'll return my little sweetheart, in the Spring

Your original post is obviously composed of bits of the main and final chorus cobbled together. The version posted by GUEST is very interesting, and apparently more complete, but I am puzzled why blue-clad sailors should be on the battlefield, rather than red-coated soldiers!