Every day an officer poured out a morale-boosting tot of fiery rum to each of his men. In periods of action the rum ration did not always reach the front line. Soldiers griped that stood not for ‘SRD’ Supply Ration Depot, but instead for ‘Soon Runs Dry’, Rum or ‘Service Diluted’ ‘Seldom Reaches Destination’. Tinned food Tinned food was a staple of the British diet, soldier’s whichever front he was fighting on. The tins shown here include a thin stew ‘Maconochie’, containing more vegetable than meat, and pork and beans. Both were a welcome change from tinned corned ‘bully beef’. The army diet, lacking fresh vegetables and fruit, made painful skin conditions such as boils worse. For variety, soldiers often scrounged from local orchards and vegetable plots. Iron rations Troops carried to last one emergency ‘iron rations’ or two days if they were on the attack, or if a ration could not bring up food because of shellfire. Iron rations consisted of army biscuits, a tin of ‘bully and tea. The biscuits could crack beef’, sugar ‘hard tack’ teeth if not first soaked or pulverised with a rifle butt. It was strictly forbidden to eat iron rations without permission.
Every day an officer poured out a morale-boosting tot of fiery rum to each of his men. In periods of action the rum ration did not always reach the front line. Soldiers griped that ‘SRD’ stood not for Supply Ration Depot, but instead for ‘Soon Runs Dry’, ‘Service Rum Diluted’ or ‘Seldom Reaches Destination’. Tinned food Tinned food was a staple of the British soldier’s diet, whichever front he was fighting on. The tins shown here include ‘Maconochie’, a thin stew containing more vegetable than meat, and pork and beans. Both were a welcome change from tinned corned ‘bully beef’. The army diet, lacking fresh vegetables and fruit, made painful skin conditions such as boils worse. For variety, soldiers often scrounged from local orchards and vegetable plots. Iron rations Troops carried emergency ‘iron rations’ to last one or two days if they were on the attack, or if a ration could not bring up food because of shellfire. Iron rations consisted of army biscuits, a tin of ‘bully beef’, sugar and tea. The ‘hard tack’ biscuits could crack teeth if not first soaked or pulverised with a rifle butt. It was strictly forbidden to eat iron rations without permission.