The song in the folk repertoire, sometimes called McCafferty, or McCaffery, is about an ordinary soldier, of Irish birth, who shot a Colonel and a Captain, in the barracks at Preston, Lancashire, in 1861 - 13 September. He was tried for the crime and hanged at Kirkdale jail in the Liverpool area, watched by a huge crowd of mainly Irish people.

This was a sensational crime at the time. Although the motives of Patrick McCaffery do not seem to have had anything to do with Irish Nationalism, the song written about the incident has entered the repertoire of Irish folk song as well as that of the ordinary British soldier. The tune is also well known as that of the song "the Croppy Boy" (Croppy= Catholic nationalist, perhaps from having short hair).

In fact his action seems to have been a reaction to bullying by Captain John Hanham, the Adjutant of the army base, wounded in the Sikh wars. He had a reputation as a Martinet (common euphemism for bully). Colonel Hugh Crofton, wounded in the Crimean war and commander of the barracks, a Training Depot, happened to be walking alongside and the bullet passed first through Crofton, then through Hanham.

This was a time when the British army recruited large numbers of people from such areas as Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, the solution to two problems: one was syphoning away potential rebels from Ireland and Scotland; and the other garrisoning the still expanding British Empire. For McCaffery himself, the army was probably the only escape he had from unemployment or very poor pay in the factories. He joined the 32nd regiment of Foot (not 42nd as in the song) after living in England in the Manchester and Liverpool area.

While on sentry duty he was supposed to keep the soldiers' children away from the Officers' Mess, where they had recently broken the windows. Hanham had seen the children and ordered McCaffery to catch them and get the names of their parents. Because the children ran away he was able to get only one name. For this Hanham put him on a charge and Crofton sentenced him to two weeks CB - Confined to Barracks, extra inspections and drill, close haircut (but not loss of pay as the song claims). He felt this as an injustice and shot at Hanham as he was crossing the barracks square. The Captain seems to have been notorious in the town and the townspeople are said to have turned their backs on the funeral procession taking his body to the railway station for sending on to his home town, Wimborne in Dorset.

The Captain was John Hanham, a son of the Squire of Wimborne, Dorset and is buried in the town cemetery. The Hanhams still occupy Deans Court, the Big House in the town, with their extensive grounds inhabited by peacocks.

I am grateful to the Priest House Museum in Wimborne for drawing my attention to the grave of Captain Hanham in Wimborne Cemetery.

The grave is mentioned in this article in Dorset Life
and here in Dorset magazine

When I was eighteen years of age
Into the army I did engage
I left my home with a good intent
For to join the forty-second regiment

While I was posted on guard one day
Some soldiers' children came out to play
From the officers' quarters my captain came
And he ordered me for to take their names

I took one name instead of three
On neglect of duty they then charged me
I was confined to barracks with loss of pay
For doing my duty the opposite way

A loaded rifle I did prepare
For to shoot my captain in the barracks square
It was my captain I meant to kill
But I shot my colonel against my will

At Liverpool Assizes my trial I stood
And I held my courage as best I could
Then the old judge said, Now, McCafferty
Go prepare your soul for eternity

I had no father to take my part
No loving mother to break her heart
I had one friend and a girl was she
Who'd lay down her life for McCafferty

So come all you officers take advice from me
And go treat your men with some decency
For it's only lies and a tyranny
That have made a murderer of McCafferty

(as sung by The Dubliners)
Tune: The Croppy Boy

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