In 1899 Queen Victoria decided to send a gift of tin boxes of chocolate to her troops serving in South Africa. It was intended that every soldier and officer should receive a box with the inscription 'South Africa 1900' and inscribed with the words 'I wish you a Happy New Year' in The Queen's own handwriting. Although the idea was not thought of directly by The Queen and was instead suggested to her alongside three other ideas, enthusiastically Victoria chose the idea of gifting chocolates to her soldiers.
Queen Victoria commissioned the country's three principal chocolate manufacturers, J S Fry & Sons, Cadbury Brothers Limited and Rowntree and Company Limited, to undertake the order for what amounted, by the end of 1900, to 123,000 tins.
The Queen wished to use her own funds to commission these gifts but all three manufacturers refused to accept payment for the order and not wishing to profit from the War or envolve themselves in any political strife, they offered to donate the vanilla chocolate instead. Due to being donated by various counterparts the chocolates were either stamped with 'Cadburys', 'Frys' or 'Rowntrees' and came in varied in packaging.
The manufacture of the tin boxes themselves was funded personally by the Queen. The tins design was based on a design by Barclay and Fry Limited of Southwark, but since each of the chocolate manufacturers used different firms to supply the tins, there are variations in their dimensions, shade of colouring and the printing of the portrait of The Queen.
The type of chocolate which was manufactured was vanilla chocolatesolidified and in bar form it was wrapped in silver foil which in turn was encosed in a sheet of brown greaseproof paper. Once this process of packaging was complele, the chocolate could finally be placed within the tin. To protect the chocolate a layer of shredded paper was situated inbetween the grease-proof paper and the bar to prevent the chocolate from moving and subsequently breaking during transportation. Supposedly it was more common for the soldiers to steep the chocolate in hot water to create what we now know as 'hot chocolate' to make it more palatable.
The recipients of this New Years gift cherished this morale boosting confectionery, many kept the tins unopened and sent them home for safe keeping. Auctioneers and journalists even offered to purchase these keepsakes for weeks worth of wages but almost all soldiers refused to part with their much cherished gifts. Many complete tins survive with their contents intact and empty tins can be purchase online for as little as £50!
A Private Humphery swore by that the tin saved his life. Private Humphery was an private and like many of his comrades was very sentimental about his gift from The Queen, upon receiving it he placed it in his top left breast pocket to keep next to his heart. In the succeeding weeks he came under heavy firing during an engagement with the enemy. A Boer Mauser bullet eventually hits the soldier but upon inspection of the resulting wound however, he realised what stopped the bullet and ultimately saved his life, was the Queen's tin. The bullet had been stopped from entering his body Inevitably by the chocolate tin he had kept over his heart.
There is truth to this story, the soldier in question turned out to be a 4497 Private Humphrey of the 2nd Batallion Royal Lancaster Regiment. On the 22" February 1900 he became engaged in a small skirmish at Grobler Kloof, where the Queen's gift did save his life. He had kept the tin in his haversack when it stopped a Mauser bullet from puncturing his spleen, a wound that would have been fatal. The story became famous and both the bullet and tin were returned to Queen Victoria in exchange for a new tin.
A clipping from a news paper in 1900 recalls this exact story
"a correspondent of the Daily News has been making determined attempts to buy one of the Queen's chocolate boxes He remarked casually to a gunner of the Horse Artillery that the box he was carrying was a pretty one. The gunner admitted it was a very pretty box, and, "wot's more, it ain't for sale." A corporal of the Essex Regiment, asked what he wanted for his box, treated the question with silent contempt. The correspondent then offered one of the Buffs two pounds for his treasure. But sentiment once more prevailed over the "auri sacra fames." " I'm sending it ome,'" said our Buff, I promised the old woman " he was a Reservist-""Tain't because I couldn't do with the bliney thick, 'uns, an'--no, it's the old Lady's gift, an' I might be buried without gittin' a medal, an' i've got this, an' any'ow, guv nor, hopin' there's no offence, I'il send it home.' "At the same time, it stems, the Queen is to have back the box which she sent to Private Humphrey. For it has a Boer bullet embedded it, and Was means of saving his life"
Although this confectionery was cherished by the British soldiers fighting in the Boer war, other countries were not so partial to the idea. The idea was met with mockery and attempts to humiliate the British army. A French satirical artist mocked the gift with a cartoon and caption which states the chocolate was infallible at healing wounds, suggesting that the soldiers were being treated with chocolate instead of bandages and medical care.
The satarical illustration shows five exhausted British soldiers sit slumped in a corner, drinking steaming hot chocolate from delicate china cups and looking mightily relieved. The caption beneath this cartoon, in French, reads: Victoria Chocolate. Infallible for healing wounds.
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