Restoring a Relic From the Trenches of World War One

hey everyone callum here and as you may know from videos i've made on this channel in the past i have a bit of a predisposition towards interesting old tools and objects i suppose more than anything i enjoy using and fixing and owning things that have a bit of a story to them i think growing up on a relatively remote island where traditionally a lot more was retained and reused you often stumble across interesting items that have been reappropriated or held onto through the years and it sometimes makes you wonder just how many lives these things might have had before you got your hands on it i think few items in my collection can probably rival this in terms of story what looks to be at first a relatively unassuming brass tobacco or cigarette case this sat on a shelf in the porch of my grandparents house for decades as a box used to keep spare fuses and nuts and bolts that might be needed about the house and it looks like in a couple of spots over the years some water has dropped onto it creating this tarnish and corrosion and generally speaking it wasn't really ever looked after with much care at some point it was removed from there and i took it i like the design on the lid and i kept it to use for all things as a fish hook storage tin then a few years after that i started taking it with me in my camper van as it was a handy little box to keep my lighter and flint and a few spare matches should i ever need them it's got this quite well made hinge to it the seal on the lid makes it relatively waterproof and it's small enough to fit in a glove box or even a backpack however this is no mere tobacco tin or cigarette case looking at the lid we can make out some unusual details first of all an interesting portrait at the center flanked by the initials mm then there's this quite eclectic mix of countries arranged around the lid belgium japan russia what looks to be montenegro serbia spell in the older latin style serbia and france you also have imperium britannicum as the header some lovely other details as well flags and staffs and swords and then perhaps most curiously of all what looks to be the bow or stern of a battleship with the main gun battery and a flag and even an anchor displayed in minute detail then in the center the words christmas 1914 which is what really gives the game away as to what this is this is actually a princess merry christmas gift box one of thousands that were presented to soldiers on the front lines in december 1914 the first year of world war one now we're quite unsure how this came to be in our family but there is a slim possibility that this very box came back from the front lines of france and then somehow ended up being used to store all sorts of gubbins over the years here on rassi so what is the story behind these tins and is there any way that we can maybe return a little bit of life to this fascinating if scruffy example of world war one history as 1914 the first year of the war came to a close it marked the beginning of the slow and stagnated trench warfare that would come to define the western front and take the lives of millions the bloody first battle of ipra had been fought and brought to an indecisive conclusion in november 1914 and the race to the sea had concluded in both sides thoroughly digging along a vast european front alongside the ever-increasing horrors of the western front the war in the eastern front was also intensifying as well conflicts in the middle east east asia africa and some of the first naval engagements amongst the german high fleet and the royal navy in october 1914 the 17 year old princess mary the only daughter of the then reigning british monarch king george v launched a public appeal to establish her royal highness the princess mary's sailors and soldiers christmas fund which had grown from mary's original intention that she pay out of her own private allowance for a personal gift for each soldier and sailor for christmas of that year this was deemed impractical and instead it was decided she would lend her name to this public fund which could then raise the necessary funds to pay for the gifts this new york times article from the 14th of october 1914 reported that princess mary daughter of the king has issued an appeal in which she says i want you all to help me send a christmas present from the whole nation to every sailor afloat and every soldier at the front on christmas eve when like the shepherds of old they keep their watch doubtless their thoughts will turn to home and the loved ones they left behind perhaps two they will recall the days when as children themselves they were want to hang up their stockings wondering what the motto had in store i am sure we will be happier on christmas morning to feel that we have helped by sending out a little token of love and sympathy something useful or of permanent value the making of which may be the means of providing employment in the trades adversely affected by war and so began an unbelievably popular and successful fundraising drive raffles and events were held all across the country to raise money for the venture and heartfelt notices were placed in papers to drive up donations one such appeal from princess mary comes from the hamilton advertiser on november 7 1914 and simply says i want you all now to help me to send a christmas present from the whole nation to every soldier afloat and every soldier on the front please will you help me mary you can see why the charm and sincerity of the young princess's appeal were irresistible to the british public and in total 162 591 pounds 12 shillings and five pence was raised an incredible sum that comes somewhere close to nine and a half million pounds in today's money so much had been raised in fact that the eligibility of the program was further extended to include all those wearing the king's uniform on christmas day 1914 whether that be at home at sea on the front even prisoners of war and the next of kin of 1914 casualties this widening of the scheme brought the number of those eligible to over 2.6 million servicemen and women the fund was a considerable success to both the morale and public support for the serving troops and made mary quite the darling of both the public and the press in the 1914 edition of the illustrated war news mary is described as the royal santa claus which is somewhat ironic since it was in the end the public that coughed up the funds to finance the vast majority of her christmas gift typically each package was to contain the brass tin along with one ounce of pipe tobacco 20 cigarettes a pipe tinder lighter christmas card and a photograph of the princess however quite early on allowances were made for non-smokers and those of different nationalities and faiths who were serving in the forces non-smokers would receive acid tablets a writing case containing pencil paper and envelopes together with a christmas card and photograph instead of pipes and tobacco the gurkhas soldiers of south asian and napolese nationality who served in the british army were to receive the same gift as british troops seeks received the box filled with sugar candy as well as a tin box of spices and other indian troops received the box of a packet of cigarettes sugar candy a tin box of spices and the card meanwhile nurses at the front were offered the box containing a packet of chocolate and the christmas card as well as a photograph now looking at our own tin the original contents have obviously long since disappeared but what we're left with is this lovely brass tin with some wording and features still quite visible now before i start any cleaning up it's important to make a few things clear these tins while over 100 years old now and certainly interesting historical objects were made in vast numbers and as a result they are not inherently valuable precious or all that rare you can in fact find many examples in varying conditions online if you'd like to get one yourself but what i would say is that you should never try to restore repair or recondition anything that you feel might be valuable or is of value to you without first considering the risks researching how to do it or perhaps consulting with an expert brass is pretty hardy and it can be cleaned and restored using a variety of different methods but my process is always going to be the lightest cleaning i can do and only to stabilize and prevent further corrosion or damage i've mentioned it in other projects that i have tried to clean or restore that i have no interest in trying to make something like new but rather to try and preserve it as best as possible for the future so with that in mind the first thing to do was to remove any excess tape or residue from the tin itself remove the contents obviously and then to gently clean it with some soap or water to remove the layer of dust and dirt that has accumulated over the years obviously the scale of the operation meant that the organization assembly and construction of all these relatively fancy tins and gift packages was a huge undertaking shortages of certain items meant that the contents of boxes varied and the quality of brass tins themselves varied considerably as the number grew and the supplies ran short after all the world was descending into a global war and both supplies to make embossed tins in the creation of the contents ranked far lower than any war essential supplies while the fund was a tremendous success and it's estimated that some 400 000 tins reached the soldiers for christmas of 1914 the delays and distribution dragged on throughout the war crucially a supply of 45 tons of brass strips earmarked for the construction of the tins was lost when they sank with the lusitania of ireland in 1915 a tragic loss of life that was also one of the defining moments in swaying american support towards joining the war even by the end of the war in 1918 boxes were still being distributed and the last wouldn't reach some soldiers until 1920 and which is estimated over 2.6 million packages had by then been distributed with my own little box now clean of dirt and tape and residue it was then a case of trying to figure out what would best clean this brass is an alloy made through a combination of zinc and copper and the balance of these metals used to make it can be altered for a combination of appearance performance or mechanical uses i'm not exactly sure what the makeup of this tin is so it's good to approach it with caution i first tried my trusty bottle of barkeeper friend it's a slightly abrasive scouring agent that is great for cleaning a whole host of metal items the moment i applied it though i knew that this was clearly going to be very effective and i was worried then that i would risk removing too much or creating uneven colors in the brass instead i decided to go down the more natural gentle route and i started slowly cleaning the lid using a soft cloth hot vinegar and table salt which is a recommendation i read about in a book years ago and has always yielded good results you can either dip the cloth into vinegar and then the salt or create a sort of paste that can be used to clean out the various pits and shapes of the embossing like we discussed as time went on and supply issues came up the quality of the tins varied some used more copper or have different balances of materials which means some cleaning and finishing might yield quite different results the blue corrosion that had built up looks to be the result of the presence of copper in there but the overall quality of this makes me think that it is a better quality brass example perhaps from one of the earlier years of production generally speaking the better the quality the more likely that it was to be produced for that christmas of 1914. even for these tins that did reach the front lines in 1914 the distribution must have posed a logistical nightmare for those in charge of the supply lines who already grumbled that the thousands of christmas gifts being sent to the front lines by families was already becoming overwhelming officers complained that such tins and gifts were getting in the way of distributing actual rations to the soldiers to make matters worse as well many of the tins weren't even pre-packaged meaning that piles of content some for smokers some for non-smokers others for indians or other colonial troops had to be arranged at the front when they arrived adding to the confusion the value of the tobacco also meant that the tins had to be carefully watched left to be raided for such valuable commodities so after lots of salt and plenty of reheated vinegar the magic began to happen suddenly these tarnished corroded spots that only a few hours ago seemed beyond repair started to reveal themselves it's incredibly satisfying to see something like this pay off especially when details like this battleship start to shine through revealing themselves after all these years this lid design was by the architectural firm messers art's head and ramsey who it seems had quite an in with the royals at the time and had been recently designing quite a few houses and cottages and features on their royal estates i think it's not unfair to say that it's a bit of a pompous design overall i think even in the style of the time it was a bit more of a throwback with these sort of art novia vibes and very regal imperium britannicum at the top but it certainly gives an impression of importance and value which i think was important as they wanted to encourage soldiers to hold on to this as somewhat of a keepsake even if it maybe did arrive a bit too late in fact many of the boxes that did arrive in 1914 arrived too late for christmas and had the cards altered to offer best wishes for a victorious new year however all said and done those at the front no doubt appreciated the thought especially as the increasingly dire situation of the war was starting to become clear christmas 1914 was also the year of the now famous christmas truce a series of unofficial cease-fires that happened around christmas day on the western front an estimated 100 000 soldiers on both sides downed weapons for a rare moment of peace on the battlefield where gifts were exchanged carol singing took place and even football matches were held on no man's land henry williamson was a 19 year old private at the time in the london rifle brigade and wrote to his mother on boxing day regarding both the truce and his welcome gift dear mother i am writing from the trenches it is 11 o'clock in the morning beside me is a coke fire opposite me is a dug out wet with strawn it the ground is sloppy in the actual trench but frozen elsewhere in my mouth is a pipe presented by the princess mary in the pipe is tobacco of course you say but wait in the pipe is german tobacco haha you say from a prisoner or found in a captured trench oh dear no from a german soldier yes a live german soldier from his own trench yesterday the british and germans met in the grounds between the trenches and exchange souvenirs and shook hands yes all christmas day and as i write marvellous isn't it so with a lot of gentle scrubbing salting and vinegaring my own christmas tin is beginning to shine looking closely we can see that a few of the features such as the word montenegro and some of the features in the battleship have softened slightly probably as a result of the heavy tarnish and corrosion and then the cleaning but otherwise a remarkable amount of details still sat underneath all that grime interestingly small amounts of pink started to appear in the areas that i had cleaned which is yet more evidence of high levels of copper when rubbing past certain layers you'll sometimes reveal this pinkish hue to be honest i don't really mind that it comes up now and then however one thing i have found that tends to lessen this effect is evertrusty brasso which again is a mild abrasive and chemical cleaner and polisher using a wadded pad i gave the lid a wipe all over and then polished it with a clean cloth and the results were really impressive lovely bright surface the pink copper hue has almost disappeared and what's more brasso is quite a good protective agent so it should mean that applying it now and then infrequently i can hopefully prevent more worsening of the brass there's still a few pock marks and marks on the tin itself but certainly underneath the lid this is where the metal is thinner and i'm a bit worried that trying to clean it and pressing too hard might accidentally warp or dent the tin i'm happy that so long as the lid is now nice and clean and clear a few extra marks to show the long and storied life it's had over the past century only adds more to the history again to me the point is never to return something to new but rather to try and preserve what we have now and there you have it the princess madei christmas gift box a fascinating piece of history and something that i think is all the more interesting when you consider how many are out there some sitting in cupboards and sheds probably across the world some prize family heirlooms and some sitting pride of place in a museum i don't think mine will ever see a museum but i also don't think i'll be relegating mine to fish hook storage anymore either perhaps it'll make a nice christmas ornament in the future to remind us of the amazing and tragic history and of course the sacrifice of those who fought in the first world war

Channel: Calum

Views: 29,951

Keywords: WW1, History, Museum, Restoration, World War One, World War 1, Princess Mary, Princess Mary Christmas Gift Box, WW1 Christmas Gift Box, WW1 Christmas Gift Tin, Princess Mary Christmas Tin, WW1 Tin, WW1 History, World War One History, brass, brass restoration kit, Western Front, world war 1 restoration, christmas day truce ww1, christmas day truce sainsburys, christmas day truce of 1914, 1914, World War One Brass Tin, restoration, restoration videos, history

Id: RTK_TQvSXag

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021