Poem ~ Every Officer’s Needs - Monday, 16 November 1914

Campaign Equipment, by

Mapp and Webbe, a company,

With three London addresses;

Of Oxford, Regent and Queen

Victoria Street - also includes

Ten global addresses,

As far as Rio de Janeiro.

A varied stock is stated,

To include essential articles,

For any officer,

On active service.

Their Campaign Equipment

Is quite ready,

For all rough use -

Being of good serviceable quality.

An open pack is diagrammed,

Made from a pigskin roll-up -

For a good dressing case.

Dependent on budget,

The officer can spend up to

£6.6s for full kit - for this

He will get all his needs.

An ebony hairbrush,

Comb and cloth brush.

Jar with shaving brush,

Jar of tooth and nail brus-

Soap jar,

Box of tooth powder,

Buttonhook,

A strap in case,

And pig skin stud box –

Pair of Hollow Ground razors,

Nail file, nail scissors,

A knife and maybe

Most importantly, a corkscrew

For bottles of French wine.

Such sturdiness is proved,

With much lost equipment

Buried in the mud -

To be archaeologically

Dug up,

A 100 or so years later.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. Advert: Campaign Equipment. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 16 Nov. p.5. col.1. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11232219/Daily-Telegraph-November-16-1914.html [Accessed: 16 November 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 16 November 2014).   

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