Okay some slight progress by Steve Roud. Steve has just sent me 3 newspaper reports of informal 'smoking concerts' in which one of the songs was 'Hurrah for the Scarlet and the Blue'. They are dated 22.12.1888, 23.10.1903 and 3.6.1908, so 1888 is our earliest extant mention. I feel pretty certain, even though we only have a title, that this must be our song. We are creeping closer. Perhaps in another 20 years we will have a positive sight of the original!