Princess Mary Christmas Gift Box

[NigelS]

Came across this in The Surrey Advertiser of April 28th 1919:

PRINCESS MARY’S GIFT

1,738 WAITING TO BE CLAIMED

A fortnight ago we announced that if all NCOs and men (or nearest of kin of the same) who were in the 6th and 7th Battalions The Queens (Royal West Regiment) at Christmas 1914, would send their names and addresses and date of joining to the Officer Commanding, The Queen’s Depot, Stoughton, Guildford, they would receive the Princess Mary’s 1914 gift, which has been kept for them.

We hear that there are 1,021 gifts at the disposal of the 6th Battalion and 1,082 for distribution amongst the 7th Battalion. Up to the present applications have been received from 178 men or their next-of-kin in the 6th Battalion and 187 in the 7th Battalion. The majority of these are resident in Surrey though some men were later transferred to other units having made application from France.

All men concerned or their next-of-kin should apply as early as possible. They are asked to state the regimental number and the company in every case.

(a couple of weeks prior to this the same details had also appeared in a classified ad.)

I know that the delivery of the gift box was protracted and went on well beyond Christmas '14, but as, as far as I can determine, the 6th and 7th Bns of the Queen's were on the Western Front, it shouldn't really have presented the regiment with a horrendous logistics problem; wonder what went wrong, and, if not all of them were claimed, whether there was ever a glut of surplus boxes in the Guildford area.

Any other example known of very late deliveries of these boxes?

NigelS