The words were written by his brother George Henry Powell (under the pseudonym George Asaf), and the song was entered into a competition for "best morale-building song".
It won first prize and was noted as "perhaps the most optimistic song ever written".
[1] Powell later wrote a musical play, Rubicund Castle, which was staged at the Pavilion Theatre in Peacehaven.
When a West End producer bought it he drastically altered it, leaving only the music unchanged, and renamed it Primrose Times.
[2] Powell committed suicide during World War II in 1942, aged 63.