Provisions Gallery

Queen Victoria in Nice - French satire on her donkey cart

Queen Victoria in Nice, France - a rather (!) disrespectful late 19th century French satirical caricature. In 1882, Queen Victoria began her winter affair with the Cote dAzur, she would arrive bearing extensive food and drink supplies, a multitude of staff, Highland soldiers and Abdul Karim, her Indian attendant (highly unpopular with all bar the queen herself). The queen would ride out frequently, either in a carriage or a cart pulled by Jacquot, a donkey she had rescued, half-starved, from a peasant (as lampooned on this card) and which she subsequently took back and forth to England with her. (Jacquot lived out his life at Windsor, after Victorias death.). Date: circa 1890s

Camel train at Cannakale, Turkey - Chanak Crisis

A camel train at Cannakale returned from provisioning the front line during the Chanak Crisis (Chanak Affair, Chanak Incident) - a war scare in September 1922 between Britain and Republic of Turkey. The incident was caused by Turkish efforts to push Greek forces out of Turkey to restore Turkish rule in the Allied occupied territories of Turkey. Turkish troops marched against British and French positions in the Dardanelles neutral zone, but the crisis quickly ended when Turkey, having overwhelmed the Greeks, agreed to a negotiated settlement that gave it the territory it wanted. There was no war. Due to his perceived mishandling of the crisis the incident led to the downfall of Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Date: 1922

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Turco-Italian War, 1911 - loading fodder for Italian troops

Hay being loaded onto the steamship Italian, part of provisions for the Italian army in Tripoli during the 1911-1912 Turco-Italian war in Tripoli in the area now known as modern-day Libya. The question of feeding troops was particularly pressing due to the outbreak of cholera in the area and the exorbitant price of food in Tripoli. Date: 1911

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans