There are several meanings of the word “mess”, though in the context of mess tins it would seem to derive from an old french word ‘mes’ meaning a dish. That fits rather nicely since the set of mess tins we have here in the collection are French. The world’s armies have been eating out of various receptacles since the beginning ot time and somewhere along the way the receptacles became mess tins. The French army updated their mess tins in 1952 hence the M52 designation and decided to have three tins instead of two, no doubt reflecting the ‘haute cuisine’ of the French catering corps. They are very well made by the French company MMT (Manufacturing Metallurgique de Tournus) in 1953, only a year after the new designation/ design.