British box ?

Bonjour à tous,

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my not-so-good English... Coming from France, it's not a language I master perfectly.

However, I'd like to know your opinion on these two crates I found recently. The first dates from the 1940 campaign, and the second from the 1944/1945 campaign. I'd like to know exactly what they were used for (obviously one is for mines and the other for jam) and find photos of “complete” models with their equipment, because I can't find any on the net...

Regarding the jam crate, does the “4/45” correspond to the year of packaging or that of expiry (which would mean that it was packaged in 1943)? I'm asking because I've recovered a ration crate dated 1943 from the same place.

As for the mine case, I can't find any information or photographs of current models... Do you know what type of mine or “contactor” this refers to? Despite using numerous keywords, I can't find any information...

Can you also confirm the country of origin?




Thank you in advance for your interest in my post,

Sincerely

 

J.K & S is likely to be James Keiller & Sons. More famous for marmalade. The jam would have been in 2lb (roughly 1kg) tins.

 

Welcome!

Not my area of knowledge at all, but a possible clue... Your crate is stamped "W (2 Years) E. 4/45". Issue depots used the term 'Warranty Expired' for cases of canned goods, so I wonder if the stamp should be interpreted as "Warranty of 2 Years Expires 4/45"? Here is an example of the term in use from the war diary of a Detail Issue Depot:



The "JK&S" stamp possibly points to the manufacturer being James Keiller & Son - a Scottish company that produced sweets and preserves. Keiller's Jam in WW1 gets a mention on this page from the Imperial War Museum:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-gallipoli

"And then there was a tin of jam – Keiller’s jam, Keiller’s marmalade – that was amongst about eight people for a tin of jam, no butter. We used to go across to the French and they liked confiture, you know, they liked jam. Well anyhow we used to rub the label off Keiller’s marmalade and say, ‘Confiture?’ And we used to get a tin of their meat. And we used to go quick before they opened it, because they didn’t like marmalade. We used to take quite long steps to get away from there!"

Martin

Edit - Rich beat me to it!

 

Hi,

Many thanks to both of you for your quick and detailed reply. It's true that few people were interested in this type of equipment, which was so central at the time... So I'm going to look for this company, “James Keiller & Sons”, hoping to find other examples of this crate as well as period photos. May I point out that it has a blue trefoil on each side, like the usual ration boxes.

I'd also like to thank you for this document, which could attest to the hypothesis of an expiration date rather than a packing date. This would be consistent with the second box that came with it. I'll just have to look for more information to confirm this hypothesis or not!

Have a nice day,