263 
BATTERY MESSING. 
BY 
LIEUT.-COLONEL J. C. GILLESPIE, R.A. 
It is most desirable that there should be an established system of 
messing throughout the Regiment, and that changes of district, station 
or C.O. should not, as may be the case now, involve a revolution in the 
arrangements of a battery, and probably much dissatisfaction. 
That there was a regular system once, and a very bad one too, that 
there is none now, and that there exist data enough to re-establish a 
new and better one, is the object of this paper. 
For many years previous to 1888 the system of messing throughout 
the Regiment was as follows :— 
A stoppage of 5Jd. a day was made from each man, Id. went for 
washing, 3d. for food and l^d. for beer; I believe the latter was once 
Id., but it had long been l|d. A certain number of men did not care 
for beer at dinner, and their numbers increased largely in the latter 
years; to provide for their case, they were supplied, in lieu, with can¬ 
teen tickets which could be exchanged for l|d. worth of groceries ; it 
was illogical, for if the man who drank beer was considered sufficiently 
well fed, there seemed to be no reason why the man who did not should 
have been compelled to eat more, and he should^ unquestionably, have 
had his l^d. back in money; this was evidently to some extent con¬ 
ceded, for no supervision was ever made over the spending of these 
tickets; often they went on tobacco. 
The whole of the 3d. stopped for food was spent on the dinner except 
only tea, sugar and milk for breakfast and tea. 
The tea cans were brought up to the rooms about 2.30 p.m.. placed 
on the table or floor, and every man, when he came in, took a drink of 
the brown liquid, it could not be called tea; if he came in late he got 
none. This drink, with perhaps a bit of dry bread which had been cut 
in the morning and had lain exposed all day, was all that a man had 
for an afternoon or evening meal. 
Great quantities of bones, fat, &c., were wasted and found their way 
to the refuse tub—this from ignorance of their value—but besides, 
much bread was thrown away (in the long-service days a very large 
amount), and the reason of this was the deplorable one that after some 
years of this system of feeding, a man’s stomach became so deranged 
that he had no healthy appetite, and practically cared for little after 
dinner but beer; that this was one of the causes of the premature 
ageing of old soldiers, which was so marked in those days, I have 
little doubt. 
5. YOL. XX. 
