Chocolate Box : Corporal A Hill, 1st Australian Horse Regiment

Commemorative tin with hinged lid. The lid has been painted red with a gold and blue border. The edge of the lid is also painted in gold. The centre of the tin has an embossed image of Queen Victoria in gold. To the right of the Queen's image is her cypher, and to her left the text 'SOUTH AFRICA 1900' in blue and yellow. Under the cypher and text is printed a message in cursive script from the Queen, 'I wish you a happy New Year Victoria R'. The tin is empty of chocolate and packing material.

The chocolate box was presented to 585 Corporal Alexander Hill of the 1st Australian Horse Regiment, Boer War. The 1st Australian Horse left Newcastle, New South Wales, for South Africa on 14 November 1899. They served in northern Cape Colony, Free State and east Transvaal. Whilst with General French’s cavalry division at Kimberley, Hill was promoted to Lance Corporal on 17 February 1900. It is not known from what illness or disease Hill contracted, but he was invalided to Australia, arriving 6 August 1900. Hill re-enlisted as 382 Sergeant Alexander Hill with the 5th Australian Commonwealth Horse, being allotted to ‘D’ Squadron.

In 1900 Queen Victoria conceived the idea of sending a personal New Year’s gift to British soldiers serving in the Boer War in South Africa. The three major British chocolate manufacturers, Fry’s, Cadbury’s, and Rowntree’s produced the tins of chocolate. Fry’s tin-makers, Barclay and Fry, designed the tin, and this was copied, with slight variations in design, colour, and size, by the other two firms.

In all, 120,000 tins were distributed in South Africa, and went on well after New Year. Queen Victoria paid for the gifts from the Privy Purse. The cost of getting them to the soldiers was donated by various railway companies and the Union Steamship Company. Many men treasured their personal gifts from the Queen – some claimed they “were as good as a medal”. Such was the prestige of the gift that a considerable number were immediately posted home unopened, with wrappings marked “With Care Queen’s Chocolate”. The empty boxes, carefully preserved for generations, were often used to hold the service medals issued to the Boer War veterans.