TOPIC:

Who manufactured these two staples of soldiers' diets in South Africa, and what was the commercial name for the dog biscuits?

Good Morning Berenice......

I have a couple of these "Dog Biscuits" or as the Navy called them "Hard Tack" that were found in an old oak barrel dated from the 1850's...... I am afraid though there is no makers name on them,,,,,,

I also have a question for everyone...... When did they start using the Broad Arrow on government / military property?????

Mike

QSAMIKE wrote: I also have a question for everyone...... When did they start using the Broad Arrow on government / military property?????

Mike

Hi Mike. This Australian blog says that the Ordnance Corps began to use it in the mid-1800s, although the Artillery used it before that date. www.bausele.com/blogs/news/broad-arrow-fa18-watch

Reference, Broad Arrow.
I think it goes way back before the Napoleonic war??


The Pheon - or broad arrow - was used as the symbol to identify government property by Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney who was Master of Ordnance to William and Mary.
Henry was asked to mark all government property in an attempt to reduce theft. He chose to use the Sidney family emblem which can be seen in many places at Penshurst and which is still in use by the government today.

Berenice
Droogleever in "Five Good Squadrons" (1st NSW MR) illustrates an example of the forty-niner army biscuit and packaging; the label is hard to read but it looks like Wellington and Ward, Elstree, Herts. Probably a range of contractors made them as well as Military production. They were called forty-niners because they were perforated with seven rows of seven small holes.
Regards
IL.