TOPIC:

Distribution of the Queen's chocolate.

The interest taken by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in her troops has often been demonstrated by kind and thoughtful acts throughout her beneficent reign, Her Majesty wishes, during Christmas 1899, to convey in some way to every British soldier at the front her sympathy and good wishes. The great difficulty of reaching each individual of the vast number engaged on active service was solved by Her Majesty sending to every soldier and volunteer in the field one pound of chocolate, enclosed in a specially designed box, which 'Tommy' could retain as a souvenir of the war and a memento his Sovereign's kindly interest in his welfare.

Source: www.angloboerwar.com/forum/11-research/3...9-1900?start=0#88756

Just came across this while researching Boer ammunition. Amongst a group of trophies from the Kimberley area is one of the chocolate boxes with its original ribbon intact. This is how the tins were distributed.

The second photograph shows another tin, with the ribbon rearranged for display purposes. Again from the Kimberley area.





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Thank you Neville, it's nice to see these pictures. I had never seen or knew about the ribbon.

Kind regards

Ian

Stephan Welz, Johannesburg, are selling one of the Kimberley displays at their next auction (28 March 2023)

These were designed with a space to take a chocolate tin (see above). However, unusually, the example being sold on the 28th features a photograph of Long Cecil instead of a tin.




Courtesy of Stephan Welz, Johannesburg

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Hi Alan,
Some added information can be found on my YouTube channel " General Gordon" and if you are interested on a copy of the Booklet just let me know.

Regards
Malcolm

It's amazing that of everything I have in my collection the one thing everyone finds interesting is the 125 year old Chocolate! Perhaps it's something that everyone can relate to....

I have 2x tins with "original" contents; I have photographed them side by side as they show the difference in the way they have aged (spoiler alert: not like a good red wine).

I know the chocolate tins came from the three manufacturers, Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree and all produced the chocolate tins....but....was there a difference in the way the chocolate was made that effected the way in which they "matured"....food for thought....





The one on the right isn't much of a talking point as it looks like I've dumped old coco powder into the tin