Warwick military museum hosting exhibition about food in the army over the last 200 years
A new temporary exhibition is to held at the Fusiliers Museum in Warwick about food in the army over the last 200 years.
The museum in Jury Street will be exploring the story of the army’s relationship with food using original soldier’s accounts and a variety of objects linked to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and successor Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
The exhibition reveals how in the First World War a daily diet of bully beef and stewed prunes supplemented by hardtack biscuits, drove soldiers and army cooks to look for variety by foraging in local orchards and vegetable plots.
Family gifts from home of chocolate and cake were essential as were regular supplies of rum rations and cigarettes.
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment captures both the soldiers’ obsessions with food and the logistical processes of its delivery in a series of cartoons and original letters.
The development of technology to create warm food when needed on the frontline is explored in the show through ‘Tommy Cookers’ and their modern counterparts.
Changing views about a soldier’s daily diet are also presented looking from Napoleonic times right through the modern Fusiliers with the standard ration packs issued by the British Army today.
The ‘Rations and Cookers’ exhibition also looks at the elaborate ceremony connected with officer banquets that were held in the regimental mess halls.
The exhibition will present a ‘high table’ place setting from such festivities showing the lavish dinnerware on display, many imprinted with regimental symbols as well as examples of the scarlet mess jackets worn for the occasion.
‘Rations & Cookers – 200 Years of Food in the Army’ exhibition runs from February to April 26.
Entry is included in the museum admission ticket and under 16s are free.
A talk is also due to take place at the museum on March 1, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm led by First World War expert and former National Geographic correspondent, Paul Colbourne.
The talk will explore how troops on the Western Front were fed in 1914-15.
Former SAS officer and historian David Seeney will discuss the stories behind ration packs and ,enus featured in the exhibition and co-creator of the exhibition, Barclay Lane will explore facts about the significance of food during 200 years of the army.
Tickets cost £12 and can be purchased in the museum or on Eventbrite through: https://bit.ly/3CdR8mE