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First known to have been performed on stage in February 1916, Vince Courtney's 'Why Me Brother Stayed at Home' was possibly a response to one of Tom Skeyhill's poems written during his time at Gallipoli. Skeyhill dedicates 'Me Brother Wot Stayed at 'Ome' to the 'Coldfooted Cobbers' who managed to shirk their military duty while he and others like him spend their days suffering and dying in the trenches.
A Theatre Magazine review of Courtney's appearance at Harry Clay's (q.v.) Bridge Theatre in February 1916 records:
'Mr Courtney - in the first half, and again in the second - sang patriotic songs of his own composition, clearly and nicely. His first number had a fine swing in it; and in the second half he spiritedly defended "Me Brother Wot Stayed at Home" - the point being that family obligations, in many cases, prevented some of the sons from going to the front' (March 1916, p.45).
Notes
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Australian Variety published the lyrics only.
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Although 'Me Brother Wot Stayed at 'Ome' appears in Skeyhill's 1916 collection of poetry, Soldier Songs from ANZAC, it was first published individually in 1915. Skeyhill's 'Acknowledgments' section records that that the poem had previously been published 'in the leading Australasian, British and Egyptian newspapers', and had been one of several poems published in the Egyptian Mail.
