Stores are held in every British Army, Navy and Air Force Base up and down the country. Not all stores are extensive, but supplies of uniform and equipment to issue to recruits, to those in need of replacements for worn out kit or for special purposes such as exercises are essential for all military operations and store keepers, if they do not have a certain item, can use the military’s ordering system to ensure supplies are delivered to them. Store rooms then hold a myriad of different items and storage and organisation are essential to ensure items can be quickly found and are not damaged by damp, breakage or rodents. Today large moulded green plastic boxes are most commonly used, but thirty years ago the boxes were made of rivetted plastic sheets in a mid-green colour:

A wire frame fits around the top f the box to add rigidity and the edges are rivetted together. A handle is cut into each end with plastic reinforcement to prevent the box splitting at this weaker point:

The boxes would have been stacked on racking, with only the ends showing, and with hundreds or possibly thousands of these boxes being used, it was essential that there be some way of identifying contents without having to pull each out and look inside. In order to allow an identification card to be fitted to each box, and be easily replaced if the contents were to change, a wire holder is fitted to one end of the box that allows a small card to be securely attached whilst still remaining easily readable:

The sides of the box are tampo printed in white and show the NSN number, manufacturer and a date of 1990:

The plastic alone would lack the strength needed to hold its shape if the box were full of heavy items of stores, so the base is constructed of plywood with a couple of reinforcing battens running the length of the box: