Father's Pants Will Soon Fit Willie

DESCRIPTION: "Father's pants will soon fit Willie. Will 'e wear 'em? Willie will." Or, in World War I, "Father's pants will soon fit Willie, Will he wear them? Will he hell?" (Repeat ad nauseum)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (mentioned in a thread on Welsh songs on mudcat.org), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: father children clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pegler-SoldiersSongsAndSlangoftheGreatWar, pp. 307-309, "Father's Pants" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cwm Rhondda" (tune)
NOTES [181 words]: Pegler-SoldiersSongsAndSlangoftheGreatWar lists the tune of this as "Bread of Heaven" rather than "Cwm Rhondda"; I found the latter attribution in a post on Mudcat. But "Bread of Heaven" is an obvious alternative name for "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah," which is often sung to "Cwm Rhondda." So I think the latter is the proper tune.
Page 714 of the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Volume 78, May 9, 1930 (available on JStor), refers to "the title of the American song: 'Father's pants will soon fit Willie.'"
The Americus [Georgia] Times-Recorder, January 25, 1917, p. 5 (available on the Georgia Historic Newspaper site) states "The Latest Ditty. 'Father's pants will soon fit Willie' has been abandoned as a family ditty for 'Sadie's skirts will soon fit mother.' -- Cincinnati Times-Star."
There was also apparently a reference to the song in Punch, though the date was not obvious from the Internet Archive version, and another from some New Zealand source. But they're all citations of the title. It's not clear just when the full text (such as it is) appeared. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: PSoS307B

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