Soyer Travelling kitchen, 1858 - Any info, please?

[Mark Ellis]

French chef, Alexis Soyer is well known for his Soyer Field stove, but much less known for his Travlling kitchen.

In 1847, the government asked Alexis to go to Ireland, to help with the starving people because of the potato famine. He had made and took with him a Soup cart, which served 26,600 portions of soup every day.

In Soyer's 1854 book, A shilling cookery for the people, he mentions of a design of mobile kitchen to feed the troops during campaigns. Soyer's book includes this drawing and text. Soyer's idea has clear specifications or requirements.

 

 

In an open letter, published in The Times of 1855, Soyer asks permission to go to Crimea and address the poor standards of kitchens and nutrition. The Crimean war was a disaster of supplies and troops untrained in cooking skills. It is said that as many or more died from disease, malnutrition and food poisoning as from wounds. In 1855, Soyer designed his Field stove, which began to be issued to units in the Crimea in 1856.

This drawing from the Illustrated London News, shows Soyer's larger Hospital stove at the front, with Soyer's Field stoves behind it

 

In March 1858 Alexis was invited by the council of the United Service Institution in Whitehall to give a public lecture on the subject of military and naval cookery. During that lecture, Soyer announces that he had been appointed to the committee to decide on the final specification for a military cooking wagon, and was delighted, if not exactly surprised, to see his design formally adopted and sent to the army's Royal Carriage Department at Woolwich for development. 

And then it all goes quiet.

In 1914, with the first world war brewing, Australian units are training for war. The newspaper article online was very dark, and impossible to see which travelling kitchen it was, but I've received these images from the Western Australia Library, which clearly shows which Travelling kitchen is the Soyer Travelling kitchen.

 

 

What I don't understand with this Travelling kitchen, is why one of the fuel storages boxes wasn't actually an oven.

 

 

 

 

I haven't been able to find any patent (because it's WD so public domain) or find any drawings or information at the overwhelming muddle of information that is the National Archive.

I know that a member of the Great War Society made a 3/4 size replica some 20 years ago, but get the impression that the person is no longer with us.

 

It just seems odd, that the London Illustrated News, who followed Soyer's activities so closely doesn't appear to mention anywhere about the Travelling kitchen. 

If anyone has anything on this kitchen, I'd appreciate hearing about it, to prove the heritage of this design. Thanks. America had Pinner's Travelling kitchen in use by 1864.

These are dates that other Travelling kitchens had patents submitted in the UK.

[MatchFuzee]

Have you seen this? 

Horse Drawn Transport of the British Army by D J Smith:

"Travelling Field Cooker

This was an improved, mobile version of the standard field kitchen of the Crimean War period. It was a limbered vehicle and, until mechanisation, accompanied most troops on the line of march or in camp, belonging to the regimental transport unit. There was one cooker to two hundred and fifty men and hot meals could be prepared on each vehicle while in transit.

The fore part of the limber carried rations, fuel and assorted equipment, with pole bar and swingle trees for draught gear. It was drawn by two horses with a mounted driver. Continental types were very similar but usually driven from a box seat.

The body section or rear limber had a stove and four boiler compartments each lined with asbestos fibre. The tall stove chimney could be lowered to the horizontal when not in use or when passing under low bridges. Food could be kept hot in the cooker for an almost indefinite period, served whenever a halt was made or camp pitched.

The fore limber was 5 feet 3 inches long and 4 feet 8 inches high (from ground level). The rear limber was 5 feet 6 inches long and 5 feet 6 inches high (from ground level with the chimney lowered)."

The complete topic:-

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/189109-field-cookerskitchens/

[Mark Ellis]

14 minutes ago, MatchFuzee said:

Have you seen this? 

Horse Drawn Transport of the British Army by D J Smith:

"Travelling Field Cooker

This was an improved, mobile version of the standard field kitchen of the Crimean War period. It was a limbered vehicle and, until mechanisation, accompanied most troops on the line of march or in camp, belonging to the regimental transport unit. There was one cooker to two hundred and fifty men and hot meals could be prepared on each vehicle while in transit.

...

The complete topic:-

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/189109-field-cookerskitchens/

@MatchFuzee yes, I've seen that thread, thanks. But is there any photos in the book?

I have tried to contact D J Smith, but no luck so far through the publishers.

As stated on that forum, there was no camp kitchen during the Crimea, which is why Soyer designed the sheet steel bodied Soyer Field stove (idea taken from the cast iron potato boiler). I'm ideally looking for anything between 1858 when Soyer announced being officially involved in producing a Travelling kitchen, and the travelling kitchen that just 1 newspaper calls a Soyer travelling kitchen in 1914.

Also, looking for any evidence that the travelling kitchen was converted to pneumatic wheels, with brakes, etc. There is little photographic evidence of Travelling kitchens in WW2, because they were Squadron sized vehicles, and the film crews filmed action, or single troops rather than squadron sized echelons.

Australia were still using what I think is the Soyer Travelling kitchen in 1939, and I wonder how many got converted to being truck drawn, rather than horse drawn. I found this invite to tender in the Australian Commonwealth Gazette, for parts to convert horse drawn to vehicle drawn. 

Thanks

[MatchFuzee]

I don't own the book, but from the description "illustrated with black and white photographs throughout" 

Searching "Horse Drawn Transport of the British Army by D J Smith" comes up with number of different sellers, and priced from only £5. 

Edited December 15, 2024 by MatchFuzee
An addition.

[Mark Ellis]

3 minutes ago, MatchFuzee said:

I don't own the book, but from the description "illustrated with black and white photographs throughout" 

Searching "Horse Drawn Transport of the British Army by D J Smith" comes up with number of different sellers, and priced from only £5. 

I've bought enough books, and archive / library prints and scans this year all ready.

I need a free subscription to The Times archive for Christmas 😏 Was great when I did the Alvis Stalwart research, and then they got greedy and started to charge lots of money.