Chocolate belonging to a Word War I soldier, Richard Bullimore, which is as old as 103 years old, has been found.
Leicestershire Regiment soldier Richard Bullimore was given the tin during the first Christmas of the First World War, along with a Princess may tobacco box containing cigarettes, tobacco and matches.
The company’s Paul Cooper said (h/t Sky): “The tin was made by Barringer Wallis & Manners of Mansfield, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of decorative tinwear.
“The colonies chocolate was sent to troops in that first winter of the war. Trinidad, Grenada and St Lucia provided the cocoa. Cadburys made the chocolate bars.
“Even the container is rare but to find the chocolate still inside is just unreal.”
Cooper said the chocolate looked to be in good shape but added, “although I have to admit that I wouldn’t be tempted to give it a go, even if the experts say that chocolate seldom becomes really dangerous over time but it does lose its flavour and texture.”
Cpl Bullimore, who is considered a war hero and was a well-decorated soldier, left military service and in 1919 he went back to the Leicestershire Constabulary which he had joined just weeks before war broke out and rose to the rank of superintendent.
Bullimore received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous gallantry during a clash in no-man’s land between the trenches in Ypres in July 1915.
