An Officer’s Shopping List

Primus Stove Poster, 1921 [Wikipedia]

Sunday 29th November 1914 (Turvey): The wives and mothers of the many Bedfordshire men now serving in the forces are doing what they can to provide them with extra comforts, and many packages are being dispatched to those already at the Front. Mrs Gertrude Longuet-Higgins of Turvey has received a letter from her son Captain John Longuet-Higgins of the 13th London Regiment which includes a list of things he would like her to send [1]:

• Almonds and raisins
• Chocolate
• Potted meat
• Mint lozenges to suck
• A clasp knife with a tin opener
• An Army & Navy cake
• A pair of braces
• Writing paper and envelopes
• Shaving soap
• Washing soap
• A toothbrush
• A strop for an autostrop razor
• Toothpaste
• Aspirin gr 5
• Quinine gr 2½
• Casgara pills
• Epsom salts (all medicines to be “tabloids”)
• Clean clothes – a shirt, pants and vest every fortnight
• Brown paper to wrap up the dirty clothes to send back
• Collars
• Socks
• Khaki handkerchiefs
• Ivory collar studs
• A pocket primus stove
• Pipe cleaners
• Toothpicks
• A bottle of champagne “to drink your healths on my birthday”

Source: Letter from John Longuet-Higgins to Gertrude Longuet-Higgins, 25th November 1914  [HG12/10/120]

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[1] Major John Esmond Longuet-Higgins MC OBE (1887-1968).