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Like their British counterparts, ANZAC o cers
would order luxuries such as Port from London
stores, as parcels sent from ‘down under’ would
take up to six weeks to arrive.
Heart-warmingly, a British o cer, Captain
Glubb of the 7th Field Company, Royal
Engineers, even wrote humorously of sharing
Port with a French colleague: “At one time,
we used to drink port wine in the mess. is
habit was started in June 1916, when I was in
England with my appendix… Just before we
came to the Somme another case arrived, but
this time it was rather unpleasantly followed
by a bill! However, we had by then become
accustomed to it!”
(1)
F
T
M
orale boosting was not the only way in
which Port contributed to the war e ort.
A large number of the Port community le
Portugal to join the con ict, notably Captain
R. C. G. Dartford. Dartford served as a liaison
o cer and assisted with the integration of the
British forces and the Portuguese Expeditionary
Corps who fought together on the Western
Front. Sadly, many of these men were wounded
or killed; the names of the dead are recorded
on a memorial in the grounds of the British
Church of St. James in Oporto.
(1)
Taken from Into Battle by John Glubb, Orion Publishers