A 121-year-old chocolate bar was found in an ancient UK home. The tin can of the chocolate bar is also intact. The specialty of that chocolate is that it was sent by British Queen Victoria to encourage the British troops fighting in South Africa. The chocolate box also contained the Queen's handwritten greeting message.
According to Reuters, the chocolate belonged to Sir Henry Edward Paston-Beddingfield. He fought for the British forces against the two independent states of the South African Republic in the Second Boeing War (1899-1902). In a 500-year-old house in Oxburg Hall, Norfolk, in the east of England, there was a box of chocolates with Henry's helmet case.
"You may not want this old chocolate as a Christmas present," said Anna Forrest, cultural heritage curator at the National Trust, which manages Oxberg Hall. However, it remains intact. It's a great discovery. "On the lid of the chocolate box is a greeting in Queen Victoria's handwriting. It reads, ‘Happy New Year to all’. Also engraved in the box, 'South Africa 1900'. There is also a portrait of the queen in the box.National Trust officials say Henry put his helmet and chocolates together as a memento of his participation in the war. Henry's daughter Frances Greathead died in 2020 at the age of 100. These memorials were recovered after his death.From 1899 to 1902, Queen Victoria sent 100,000 chocolates, each weighing half a pound (226 grams), to boost the morale of the British army at the Second Boeing War. At that time the three major chocolate producers in Britain were Cadbury, Fry and Roundtree.The Quakers were in charge of managing these. They were, of course, anti-war. They didn’t want to take any money in exchange for the chocolate supply. So they didn’t use the brand name in the chocolate tin.But the queen wanted the British army to know about the gift she had sent. For this reason, the chocolate producers agreed to brand some chocolates but did not do so.
Although some boxes of that chocolate have survived, it is difficult to find the real box. According to the National Trust, it is rare to find the original owner of a chocolate box after so many days. It was more difficult to get chocolate as many people ate it as a gift.