Biscuit messages

04 Dec 2025

Curator Kitty Ross with the decorated biscuit from 1914, beautifully painted with an image of a battleship and carrying an inscription that reads ‘Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a bright new year’. The fragile vintage snacks, more than a century old, were originally issued to servicemen as a durable emergency ration but were reputedly so unpalatable, they were instead repurposed as a humorous way of staying in touch with loved ones over Christmas.

Biscuit messages: Curator Kitty Ross with the decorated biscuit from 1914, beautifully painted with an image of a battleship and carrying an inscription that reads ‘Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a bright new year’.
The fragile vintage snacks, more than a century old, were originally issued to servicemen as a durable emergency ration but were reputedly so unpalatable, they were instead repurposed as a humorous way of staying in touch with loved ones over Christmas.

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