Brass Christmas box dated December 1914 presented by Princess Mary to all soldiers at the Front. Recipient was Sgt Harry Hewson, King's Shropshire Light Infantry 1908-1919 who served in India, Mesopotamia, France and Germany. The Princess Mary 1914 Christmas Gift: In November 1914, an advertisement was placed in the national press inviting monetary contributions to a 'Sailors & Soldiers Christmas Fund' which had been created by Princess Mary, the seventeen year old daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. The purpose was to provide everyone wearing the King's uniform and serving overseas on Christmas Day 1914 with a 'gift from the nation'. The response was truly overwhelming, and it was decided to spend the money on an embossed brass box, based on a design by Messrs Adshead and Ramsey. The contents varied considerably; officers and men on active service afloat or at the front received a box containing a combination of pipe, lighter, 1 oz of tobacco and twenty cigarettes in distinctive yellow monogrammed wrappers. Non-smokers and boys received a bullet pencil and a packet of sweets instead. Indian troops often got sweets and spices, and nurses were treated to chocolate. Many of these items were despatched separately from the tins themselves, as once the standard issue of tobacco and cigarettes was placed in the tin there was little room for much else apart from the greeting card. King's Shropshire Light Infantry - 2nd Battalion 1914 - 1918 A Regular battalion, serving in India from 1903 - 1914; at Secunderabad in August 1914 when mobilised for war. It joined 80th Brigade, 27th Division and landed at Le Havre, France, on 21st December 1914 under Lt. Col. Bridgford. After some of the hardest fighting in the Ypres Salient at St.Eloi, St.Julien and on Frezenburg Ridge in the Second Battle of Ypres in the Spring of 1915, the battalion moved to the relatively quiet sector (at that stage) of the Somme. It was sent to Salonika in December 1915 and spent nearly three years fighting the Bulgarians in Macedonia, for the most part based on the Struma front. From June 1916 to December 1917 2 KSLI was in trenches at Neohari and in the final offensive against Bulgaria, it was one of the first allied units to entry enemy territory. 2 KSLI absorbed the war-raised 8th Battalion in November 1918 and returned home via Southern Turkey, after service at Batum on the Black Sea Dec. 1918 - June 1919, protecting oil supplies in the face of the Russian Civil War. It was sent to Fermoy and Dublin during the last stages of British rule and was the last British battalion to leave Dublin Castle on the formation of the Irish Free State in 1921. 2nd Battalion Battle Honours: France and Flanders 1915 ; Macedonia 1915-18 ; Gravenstafel ; Ypres 1915* ; St. Julien ; Frezenberg* ; Bellewaerde.