It was Christmas Day in the Cookhouse …

As you eat your Christmas meal – whether it’s traditional, exotic, vegetarian or vegan – spare a thought for the Mongey Wallahs, the cooks who had to feed large numbers of men everyday of the year during the Macedonian campaign: with no gas or electric hobs and ovens, often unreliable provisions and extremes of temperature to work in, not to mention the activities of the enemy. These unsung heroes of the BSF get little attention so, at this time of year when food plays such an important in the festivities, it’s good to remember them and their vital role.

The collection of photos which belonged to Private John Gilchrist of 244 MT Company, Army Service Corps (kindly donated by his granddaughter, Caroline Coleman) contains a selection of photos showing cooks at work, but this first – the only one directly Christmas-related – shows the Company’s festive meal ‘in preparation’:

The turkey flock and accompanying pigs would have been closely guarded, to prevent thieving by neighbouring units and any other predators!

Bread was, of course, an important staple throughout the year – although often replaced by biscuit in the field – and this photo shows an ASC field bakery hard at work:

Sun helmets suggest the summer months, which must have made for uncomfortable work with these wood ovens, but it must have been even hotter inside this tin shed with all those ovens on the go!

A group of ASC Mongey Wallahs pose for the camera beside their improvised ovens (left) and camp kettle (or dixie) trench (right). None of the above photos are captioned or dated, but the next, labelled ‘Cookhouse’ – which shows a similar setup to that above – can be dated to the spring/early summer of 1916, thanks to the slouch hats worn by the cooks.

If you want to know more about army food and the means of cooking during the First World War, I recommend “Feeding Tommy” by Andrew Robertshaw (The History Press, 2013).

Ideally, a Christmas dinner should be followed by duff and custard. If you find yourself needing to cater for a hundred guests, I offer here the army recipe for custard – although you’re on your own with the Christmas duff:

• 1½lb custard powder
• 2lb sugar
• 12 pints milk
• 12 pints water

• Mix milk and water to make the custard powder into a thin paste
• bring the rest of the milk and water to the boil, stir in the sugar, and reboil
• stir in the custard mixture sharply (!) and leave on the heat until boiling, stirring continually – nobody wants lumpy custard!

Personally, I think I’ll stick with ready-made supermarket custard! But whatever scoff or scran you’re eating this Christmas, I wish you …

Bon appetit … and Happy Christmas!