Iron Rations

One thing about being a collector and a regimental historian is that I marvel how things survive, long after they were issued or used.

In today’s throwaway world, I am amazed at what still turns up that men decided to keep as a souvenir of their soldering.

I recently spotted a fantastic group of items at auction belonging to the Buckle brothers from Woodbridge. Both sadly were killed during the Second World War; one brother, Robert, served on HMS Kipling and was killed in action and buried at sea in December 1941, and the other brother, Leslie, was killed in captivity as a result of an air attack in April 1945.

It was Leslie’s story that captivated me for he had almost survived the abysmal conditions of Japanese captivity only to be killed a couple of months before VJ Day when the railway wagon he was housed in, was attacked by Allied bombers in a siding near Saigon’s main station.

As No. 5827079, Leslie Buckle joined 4th Suffolk in December 1937 was posted missing in action at Singapore in February 1942. After the death of his brother, it was clear that his mother tried desperately to obtain news of her remaining son, and tragically just after VJ-Day she received the news that he had been killed.

The brothers medals were a hugely poignant and thought-provoking grouping, but were sadly outside of my funds, but what I found fascinating was an envelope that belonged to Leslie which was entitled ‘Iron Rations issued to 4th Battalion. Suffolk Rgt. on September 1940’ and contained within, were the remains of the ‘hard-tack’ biscuits that he had been issued to the men of the Battalion.

What prompted him to keep them? Why retain such an odd item? Was it a joke that he sent home to his mum? Who knows?

It seems quite probable that the latter was the most plausible. The old gripe that army food was pretty bad, though it has to be said that the Army evolved massively during the war, to introduce a better food system, but it seems to be the ‘joke’ here that Leslie was trying to tell his mother that he missed her cooking.

Iron rations were the emergency rations issued to be opened only in an emergency or when ordered by an officer. After action, they would have to be handed back in if not consumed, to be re-issued again another day.

In the Boer war, it was a tin of beef extract and cocoa to be eaten or drunk. By the Great War it was a tin of ‘bully beef’ and ‘hardtack’ biscuits, issued as a substitute for bread and by the Second World War, the biscuits survived though in a thinner, more softened form (to assist breaking down in stews etc.). Leslie must have thought them dire enough to not eat them and instead send them home to his mother.

I hope someone who appreciates the significance of these bits and pieces, brought the group and that it’s now found a good home. The story of the Buckle brothers service for their country deserves to be seen by a much wider audience.

(Thanks to Bishop and Miller auctioneers for the photo)