As a collector you occasionally do things that make you loved one look at you as if you have gone mad. A case in point was on my recent summer holiday when, after going off for a rummage round the junk shops of Scarborough (my wife was very relieved not to have to come with me), I returned carrying a kettle. Not just any kettle, but a particularly large kettle:This kettle came home with me, stuffed with dirty linen and packed into my holdall. My wife thought I was absolutely bonkers but as a collector I was very pleased to have found a wonderfully weird piece of militaria. This kettle is made from aluminium and stamped with a /|\ mark and dated 1959:Apart from its size, there is little else of particular note about the kettle, it has plastic fittings for the handle and lid so you don’t get burnt when its hot:And inside it has clearly been used to store something at some point as there are a series of round ring shaped marks:I guess that after its army days were over this kettle saw service in a church hall or playgroup or other location where large amounts of hot drinks were needed and at that point people started storing items inside when it wasn’t needed and did not always put these items inside when they were completely dry, thus leading to the marks.

When in military use this kettle would probably have been used in a kitchen in a barracks or in a field kitchen to help prepare large amounts of water for soldier’s ‘wets’; the hot strong tea on which the British military seems to run.

Quite what use I have for such a huge kettle is questionable, however if I ever need to cater for twenty people at once I am sorted…