“A1/AA 5880 tins,mess rectangular,aluminium” is the official designation of these mess tins and to that we need to add” Pat ’37 W.E” which just goes to show how complicated life can be in the army when all you want is something to eat your dinner out of! Anyway, the ‘Pat ’37 bit refers to a new pattern of mess tin that was introduced into the army in 1937 and whilst it seems there were a few metal ones around the vast majority were made of aluminium, as were the 1945 versions that we have here in our collection. We assume that REGICOR and MMS on the respective tins were the manufacturers as the War Department (army) nearly always used established manufacturers to make their gear on licence, though quite who REGICOR and MMS are/were, we are not sure. Generations of campers, scouts, mountaineers and outdoor folk have used mess tins to good effect for cooking and eating their food out of, having bought them from an ex-army store somewhere along the way. This would seem to be the case with Ian Parrish who kindly donated this set to the collection. For those with more than a passing interest in things like this, there’s a website called KARKEE WEB which will surely satiate your desire!