December’s Object of the Month had to be a Christmas special! Volunteer Geraldine has selected the iconic First World War gift sent out to troops overseas, researching the boxes themselves and where the men of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry would have been spent their Christmas in 1914.

Princess Mary’s Gift Boxes

By Geraldine Howell

Her Royal Highness The Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary.

In October 1914, aged 17, Princess Mary initiated the setting up of a public fund to raise money for a gift to be sent to soldiers and sailors at Christmas. Initially intended only for sailors serving under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe and soldiers under Field Marshall Sir John French, the scheme proved so popular and raised such a substantial sum of money that the gift was eventually sent to all serving personnel.

The best way to produce and deliver each gift across so many fields of service was to divide the recipients into categories. The first category, which would receive the gift at Christmas, included the Navy and associated services and soldiers serving on the Western Front. Delivery of the other two categories would go on well into the New Year.

The gift was a brass box embossed with the image of Princess Mary on the lid and the names of the six Allied countries, France, Belgium, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan around the edge. The Museum’s collection of gift boxes reveals some of the contents recipients would have discovered inside, including a packet of pipe tobacco, a packet of cigarettes, an envelope with a Christmas card from Princess Mary and a small photograph of her.

The Princess Mary Gift Boxes used in our display belonged to:
(1) Private Douglas Brown, OXFYT: 4824
(2) James J R Davis, OXFYT: 449
(3) Sidney Herbert Wells, Queens Own Oxford Hussars SOFO: 14060

Acknowledgements:
The Royal Navy and Christmas 1914, Philip Weir, History Today, www.historytoday.com (accessed 24th November 2025).
A Gift for Christmas: the story of the Princess Mary’s Gift Fund, 1914, Diana Condell, Imperial War Museum Review, No. 4, pp. 69-78, Trustees, Imperial War Museum, 1989.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry: August – December 1914.

Britain had declared war on Turkey on 5 November 1914 after the Ottoman Empire had aligned with the Central Powers. In response the 1st Battalion (43rd) Oxf & Bucks LI had spent the latter part of November into early December relocating from India to Mesopotamia to help defend Britain’s oil interests in the area. By Christmas the Battalion was encamped near Basra.

The 2nd Battalion (52nd) of the Oxf & Bucks LI had, experienced a quite different four months, having already taken part in a significant amount of armed conflict since Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914. As part of the British Expeditionary Force the 2nd Battalion had arrived in Boulogne on 14 August to support their French allies. From here they had marched east across the Belgian border to counter German forces attempting to conquer France by swift invasion and the taking of Paris. The two sides met at Mons on 23 August. After initially halting the German advance with rifle fire, British and French forces began a tactical 200-mile retreat south that lasted for the remainder of August and into September.

Fighting rear guard actions all along the way, and sustaining significant casualties, the Battalion crossed the River Marne and took part in the action to successfully repel the enemy on 8 September. Pushing north now, towards the River Aisne, the type of fighting began to change. Confronting the German army at the Battle of the Aisne on 12 September, the Allies successfully crossed the river the next day. Both sides now began constructing large trench systems to protect themselves from the heavy artillery fire that had already resulted in so many fatalities and casualties.

Relieved by French forces the British troops now marched north, over the Belgian border and towards the Lille area, arriving at Ypres by 19 October. Chosen as a strategic location to deny enemy forces all important access to the North Sea and its ports, this 1st Battle at Ypres would see fierce fighting and severe losses on both sides.
Fought from trenches, with some wood fighting at the end of October and beginning of November, this conflict included the significant victory over the Prussian Guard at Nonne Bosschen wood on 11 November in which the Oxf & Bucks LI played a decisive role.

The ravages of the winter weather all but ended further hostilities towards the end of November bringing to a close this first battle at Ypres. The Ypres area would go on to witness further harrowingly destructive engagements with appalling losses, the second of which, in April 1915, saw chlorine gas used against the Allies.

The first four months of war, therefore, leading up to Christmas had seen the men of the 2nd Battalion, Oxf & Bucks LI experiencing extraordinary physical and mental hardship as they both marched significant distances and suffered the horrors of modern artillery fire and the increasingly stressful living conditions associated with trench warfare. It was in this context of three major spheres of action and one yet to come, that Princess Mary conceived her idea of sending a Christmas present to each person serving abroad. It was to acknowledge that the home front both remembered them and honoured the service they were giving under the most demanding and often distressing circumstances.

References:
The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Chronicle 1914-1915, Vol XXIV, Compiled by Lt. Colonel A. F. Mocker-Ferryman, pub. Eyre and Spottiswoode Ltd.
1914: Mons to Christmas, National Army Museum, undated; Mesopotamia Campaign, undated, both www.nam.ac.uk
10 Significant Battles of the First World War, Imperial War Museum, 2025, www.iwm.org.uk
First Battle of Ypres, History Magazine, updated January 25th, 2025, www.history.com
Stalemate: The Race to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres, Commonwealth War Graves Commision, 21st October 2024, www.cwgc.org
All accessed between 17th and 24th November 2025.