Stoneware Jug , SRD (Service Rum Demerara?), with the names of veterans, May 8, 1945 [Signed in Holland in 1985] SRD could also mean: Services Rum Diluted, Service Ration Depot, Special Red Demerara, Standard Rum; Diluted, "Seldom Reaches Destination", "Soon Runs Dry", or "Seldom or Rarely Delivered". Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels. From "The Seaforth Highlanders 1919-1965" by Reginald Roy: Meals at the front, it should be noted, were remarkably good under normal circumstances. Cooked a mile or so to the rear, they were brought up piping hot in universal carriers (tracked armoured vehicles) by the company quartermaster sergeants (C.Q.M.S.) and served out on a platoon basis. The battalion cooks were good, and although there were many times when conditions limited meals to cheese or bully-beef sandwiches with the inevitable tea, generally the cooks could bring up a roast beef or mutton dinner with all the trimmings including a dessert. With the carrier the mail and the daily issue of "The Maple Leaf" were brought up as well as the rum ration. It was a time to get battalion news, too, from the carrier driver, the C.Q.M.S., or one of the cooks. The arrival of a batch of mail, word of a sackfull of cigarettes from the Women's Auxiliary, news of former wounded Seaforths returning to the unit, the latest rumour about a move - the gossip was endless.