Keep the Home Fires Burning

DESCRIPTION: "They were summoned from the hillside, They were called in from the glen, And the country found them ready At the stirring call for men." The new volunteers ask, "Keep the home fires burning... Though the boys are far away... Till the boys come home."
AUTHOR: Words: Lena Guibert Fort / Music: Ivor Novello (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: patriotic home soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 185, "Keep the home fires burning" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 215, "(no title)" (1 text, which includes only the chorus)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 17-18, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #22, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 178, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 313, 337-338, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 316-317, "Keep the Home Fires Burning"
Roud #25763
SAME TUNE:
Keep the Campfire Burning (File: ACSF337K)
Napoo -- Fini (File: NeTT075)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Till the Boys Come Home
NOTES [193 words]: According to Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, the proper name of the lyricist of this piece is "Lena Guillbertford." I don't know which name is original; possibly this was distorted in one or another version of the sheet music to make it easier to use.
This is often known as "Till the Boys Come Home." John Hay wrote a poem, "When the Boys Come Home," with music by Oley Speaks, beginning "There's a happy time coming when the boys come home." It is, obviously, not this piece.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, pp. 312, 316, estimates that this was the forty-fourth most popular song in America in 1916, peaking at #14 in March1916 (#1 for the year being Gus Kahn, Tony Jackson, and Egbert van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby") and returning to #7 in October 1917 after America joined the war.
John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 163, claims that this was "the biggest seller of the last few years of the war"; it sold more and more as the war went on. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: BrPa215

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