Wash Me in the Water

DESCRIPTION: "Wash me in the water That washed your dirty daughter/the Colonel's daughter, Then I shall be whiter Than the whitewash on the wall...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Nettleingham-TommysTunes)
KEYWORDS: soldier children
FOUND IN: Britain Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Nettleingham-TommysTunes, #96, "Whiter than the Whitewash" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 54, "Wash Me in the Water" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 69, "Wash Me in the Water" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 37, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Ewan MacColl, _Journeyman: An Autobiography_, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 83, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
Roud #10550
NOTES [108 words]: Ewan MacColl's autobiography doesn't say where he learned this, but if he places it in the right context, he would have learned it in northern England in the early 1920s -- which makes it quite likely that he got it from a veteran of World War I (which would explain why he doesn't identify the source, since he rarely mentions the war or the soldiers). His is among the earliest, if not the earliest, versions of the standard text, but in the absence of clearer documentation, I have listed an EARLIEST DATE from a more reliable source.
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver says the tune of this is a "Salvation Army Hymn," but doesn't say which one! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: BrPa054A

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