Now old England she needs soldiers & I hope you’ll all reply
She needs you in the service for to conquer or to die
She needs you in the service for to join the jolly crew
& these were the regiments that were present at Waterloo

ch  there were the Light Guards & Cavalry, Mallitia men & volunteers, 
    Queens Bays, Scots Greys, some of our Infantry.
    the Royal Marines, the Engineers, the Coldstream Guards, the Fuselliers, 
    the Hundred & Ninth Malitia and the Royal Artiliary

they sent us out to Egypt in the year of eighty four they
sent us out to Egypt where the mighty cannons roar with
General Gordon we did go when there he met his fate &
these were the regiments arrived there an ace too late

They dressed us up in uniform of red & gold & black,
They dressed us up in uniform, a knapsack on our back.
We marched right off to Africa, & we looked mighty swell
And these were the regiments from which the soldiers fell: ch
	
We won the fight, we won the war, we won the bloody lot,
We won the fight, well some of us did, those that didn't get shot.
The lucky ones left standing, they raised the Union Jack
And these were the regiments that almost made back ch
	
When we got back to Blighty, still in battledress,
When we got back to Blighty, we saw the officers mess.
Recruiting sergeant he was there and us he did inspect,
And these were the regiments that almost wrang his neck. ch


v3, 4 & 5  © Cresby Brown Aug 1992
v1 & 2 from the singing of Joe Latter at Putley Folk Festival 1992.
Joe learned it in 1940 from Alice Marsden (then aprox age 50, born in Derbyshire) of West Chiltington, Sussex, while he was evacuated during WW2
The content and chronology lead us to believe this is a Boer War recruiting song. Or perhaps a Music Hall satire thereof. 

Roy Palmer was the obvious person to consult when I collected “Old England ...” and at the time
he had no research of his own that could shed any light on the song, though he felt the tune 
was a derivative of “the Ball of Kirriemuir”. In my estimation that "ball" has bounced a long 
way!  The Bodleain Library and especially it's music department were unable to help either.  By
Feb 1998 Roy Palmer had happened across a reference to what was clearly a younger sibling &/or 
descendant of “Old England...”

The infantry went over the top, the Fuseliers as well
As we engaged the Gerry at the battle of Neuchâtel
............
..............
For there were the RC's, C of E's, Chinese and Japanese
Siamese and Portuguese and some of the infantry
There were the bombadiers and brigadiers and Mademoiselle from Armentièrs
Some of the Irish Rifles and the Royal Artillery.

(from a pre-WWII Territorial; learned from an old Sweat Instructor.)

The tenor and references to various groups makes one think immediately of a later age than Joe
Latter's version.