This poem appeared in a number of Australian newspapers during World War I, where it was usually attributed to the 19th century Scottish journalist and author Charles Mackay.
The poem was also published in the Australian Worker in August 1914, where it was attributed to a contributor, S.A. Mansfield, of Boswell, Tasmania. It is unclear whether Mansfield deliberately sought to pass the work off as their own, however this was the first of two poems not written by Mansfield which were to appear in the Australian Worker under Mansfield's name, the other being 'Are We Not Brothers All?', by the 19th century American poet Lydia Sigourney.
