TOPIC:

please can anyone help with this photo, I am not sure even if is a British regiment it seems about the period of the Boer war but to me the helmets seem slightly earlier, I may be wrong, can anyone recognise anything to give a clue

best regards

Saxon,

I would think this is a picture of a British regiment during the Boer War. My knowledge is weak in this area but the tents look right, the man on the right is wearing a regimental flash in his helmet so it feels to be of the right period.

thank you for your reply David it might have been the helmet flash that threw me because I have a helmet to the Connaught rangers and the flash is on the outside cover, where this one appears to be just on the side, regards saxon.

The three-legged cast-iron cooking pot under the rifle pyramid is still a very characteristic element of outdoor cooking in South Africa. In the politically incorrect old days it was called a ****** pot, because it was standard equipment in rural tribal areas. I do not know what the current polite name is, but the Afrikaans word "potjie" applies at barbecues ("braais" to South Africans).

Presumably, these pots were originally made in Britain, and I wonder if they were as common elsewhere in the Empire as they were (and still are) in South Africa? Were they in fact standard equipment used by military cooks?

Brett

Brett
I can't help about the picture; however I understand that field cooking in the British Army at that time was the "SOYER COOKER" and not the cute little three leg cooking pot shown. There was a TV show some time ago which covered the history of British army field cooking and gave the SOYER COOKER as initially being introduced during the Crimean War and still in use a Century later. During the first exercise I ever did with the OZ Army (1965), there was a line of SOYER COOKERS puffing away.
The pic, however, is very atmospheric!
Regards
IL.

thanks for reply Brett,very interesting, regards saxon