Cyril had this to say about his song, written in 1959:

"You need to be quite an old hand to recall the lone character who stood outside Albert Gate, Devonport, late each night selling "oggies" (Cornish pasties) to sailors returning from a run ashore (how on earth did he keep them warm?).  Everyone thought this minor institution would last as long as the Navy itself, but the Blitz gave the chance for rival hot dog stands to establish themselves on the bomb site opposite (many post-war sailors confuse these with the Oggie Man himself) and he was forced to abandon his pitch, if not his trade.  I imagined a sailor newly back from abroad.  He finds two unforeseen changes.  First, the girl hasn't waited.  Ruefully he remembers their last farewell, right here at the Albert Gate, when she likened the permanence of her love to that of the nearby Oggie Man.  Now he's aware of the second change, and bitterly he realises that there's more than one way of telling the truth."

-Sleevenotes, Sally Free and Easy (Neptune Tapes NEP 002, 1990).