Queen Victoria's chocolate gift tin

"You’ve got to do the fighting, and you’ve got to take the knocks, You’ve got to meet the artful Boer and give the bounder socks: And as a sort of recompense you’ve got a Christmas box Of ’arf a pound of chocolate and a tin. In 1900 Queen Victoria conceived the idea of sending a personal New Year’s gift to British soldiers serving in the Boer War in South Africa. This was later extended to include colonial troops and members of the naval brigade. The three major British chocolate manufacturers, Fry’s, Cadbury’s, and Rowntree’s – all Quaker-owned companies – produced the tins of chocolate. Initially, they were reluctant to support the war effort because of their Quaker pacifist ethic, but were persuaded to change their minds.

Fry’s tin-makers, Barclay and Fry, designed the tin, and this was copied, with slight variations in design, colour, and size, by the other two firms. The tin shown here is a Cadbury’s product, manufactured by Hudson Scott. It was slightly smaller than the other two tins, to accommodate the size of the chocolate moulds used by Cadburys. In all, 120,000 tins were distributed in South Africa, and went on well after New Year.

Queen Victoria paid for the gifts from the Privy Purse. The cost of getting them to the soldiers was donated by various railway companies and the Union Steamship Company. Many men treasured their personal gifts from the Queen – some claimed they “were as good as a medal”. Such was the prestige of the gift that a considerable number were immediately posted home unopened, with wrappings marked “With Care Queen’s Chocolate”. The empty boxes, carefully preserved for generations, were often used to hold the service medals issued to the Boer War veterans.