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Australia supplied its troops in WW1 with two basic mess tins.
All mess tins supplied to Australian Military troops were made of a tin plate. There were steel tins covered with a protective 'tinning'. There were two basic shapes. One was a D-shaped tin while the other was round. These Australian mess tins were issued in accordance with British orders for their own troops.
The D-shaped mess tin had been in use with the British Army for many years, and had changed very little. It consisted of two portions, a lid and a base. The base was deep and had two or more small brass loops on the outside to allow a leather equipment strap to pass so it could be secured to other equipment. The lid was the same shape but much shallower, the lid also had a folding wire handle that folded into the inside of the tin when not in use.
This mess tin has several covers, all the covers were made from a light cotton canvas type material. Australia produced a cover that allowed it to be used with the two types of equipment available at the time. The Australian Army used the Pattern '03 and Pattern '08 & Pattern '15 equipment. The first pattern was the Bandolier equipment, the mess tin cover was required to slip onto a 2" waist belt, sit at the rear, and have a brass hook from the great coat carrier hook onto a loop on the top rear of the mess tin carrier. There were no requirements for the mess tin carrier when in use with the Pattern '08 (or P'15 - ie Australian leather version of the web P'08). However, the mess tin cover was issued with a 3" pair of leather belt loops to allow it to be slipped onto the 3" web or leather belt.
The marks on the mess tins are usually the makers name and City of residence, and an Australian acceptance mark (usually a capital letter or two beneath a small broad arrow) . These marks are stamped into the metal of the tin. The marks on the covers consists of the same information but will be an ink stamp on the inside of the cover or flap. Most examples appear to be blue or black ink.
The round shaped mess tin is for any horse drawn troops, ie mounted infantry or cavalry. These mess tins, in Australian use were primarily issued to Artillery and Light Horse units. These were usually carrier on the saddle equipment, strapped by a thin leather equipment strap. They were also seen strapped to the water bottle, which is carrier over the shoulder.
The covers for these tins are made of similar materials to the D-shaped mess tin covers. But there are no belt loops. There are some small loops of leather on the covers which allow the tin to be strapped to other equipment
GRANT NAPIER
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This page was last updated by Russell Napier Tuesday, 11 May 1999