The first Brighton Camp was formed during the French invasion scare; the Prince meeting the troops on the outskirts of the town, and they pitched their tents at Belle Vue Field. The encampment consisted of regular troops and militia; its maximum strength was 10,000 men, and they were kept under arms from 13th August to 28th October, 1793.

In the following summer a second camp was established about a mile and a half to the west of Brighton, its maximum strength reaching nearly 15,000. In 1795 there was a third camp at Brighton, made memorable by two men being shot and others flogged for mutiny.

 This air is contained in a manuscript in the possesion of Dr. Rimbault, of date about 1770, and in several manuscript collections of military music of the latter half of the last [i.e., 18th] century. It is a march, and is either entitled The girl I left behind me, or Brighton Camp.
 One of the lines in the song "The girl I left behind me," is "But now I'm bound to Brighton Camp," and this gives a clue to the date of the words.
 Although there were encampments along the coast between 1691 and 1693, before the victory of La Hogue, I do not attribute the song to so early a date, because I find no traces of words or music in the numerous publications in the first half of the eighteenth century; but in 1758 and 9 there were also encampments, whilst Admirals Hawke and Rodney were watching the French fleet in Brest harbour. The French had prepared "flat-bottomed boats" for the landing of troops. In 1759 all danger of a descent upon our coast was averted by Admiral Boscawen's victory over one French fleet, and Admiral Hawke's over another. These and other successes of the year were chronicled in a song entitled "The year fifty-nine." In that year, a farce was printed, entitled The Invasion, to ridicule the unnecessary apprehansions which some persons had entertained of a nocturnal descent upon our coast by means of the flat-bottomed boats, and Garrick produced a pantomime, entitled Harlequin's Invasion, with the same object.
 It appears, therefore, that the song of The girl I left behind me may be dated, with great probability, in 1758.

 The earliest known version of the melody was printed about 1810 in Hime's Pocket Book for the German Flute or Violin (Dublin, n.d.), vol. III, p. 67, under the title The Girl I Left Behind Me; NLI. Manuscripts containing the melody, dating back to about 1770, mentioned in Chappell, p. 708, have not been located. Two American manuscripts of the melody from about 1800 are noted in Fuld-Davidson, pp. 35 and 41.
 The eariest known printing of the words is in a booklet "printed in the Year 1808" entitled The Girl I Left Behind Me, with the Answer. To which is added Ellen O'Moore, Erin Go Bragh, The Gallery Slave.
 [...]
 There is considerable controversy as to whether the melody of this song was originally Englsih or Irish. The melody is also said to have been known as Brighton Camp; however, no earlier printing of it has been found under this title, and the Brighton Camp Quick March, entered in Stationers' Hall on Nov. 12, 1792, has a completely different melody; BM.

Girl I Left Behind Me, The

An air in march time long associated with the British army, and formerly played when a regiment was changing its quarters from one town to another. Another name for it is Brighton Camp. It has been claimed as of Irish origin, but no satisfactory proof of this has been adduced. The tune cannot be traced back to a printed copy earlier than the end of the 18th century, but there seems every likelihood that it has been traditionally current as a military marching air. Chappell in Popular Music refers to a manuscript copy formerly in possession of Dr Rimbault, in date about 1770; he fixes the date of the song as about 1758. The earliest copy of the words the present writer has seen is in his own library in a MS collection dated 1797, and undoubtedly written in that, or a previous year. The words "Brighton Camp" occur in the song, and it has been claimed that as the name Brighton is only a recent change from Brighthelmstone the song cannot be of any great age. It must, however, be pointed out that there can be little doubt that "Brighton" was a local pronunciation, or shortening of the longer name, long before it became officially recognised. The Irish claim to the tune first began with Thomas Moore's inclusion of it in the seventh number of the Irish Melodies, 1818, to his words "As slow our ship", with the air named The Girl I left behind me as its old title.

Bunting followed this claim up in 1840, but failed to give any logical reason for this assumption of Irish origin. Moore's and Bunting's versions are elaborate ones, and quite destroy the strongly marked rhythm of the simple marching form. Under the title Brighton Camp the tune is found in The Gentleman's Amusement, circa 1810, and elsewhere, and under The Girl I left Behind Me in a MS music book in the writer's possession, c. 1815. These versions have some degree of difference, and may be seen in Songs of the Georgian Period, (Moffat & Kidson).