Naming on 14-15 Star

[Terry]

I should know this, but... Can anyone tell me what EX.FCE.CAN. stands for on the reverse of a star?

[Guest Hill 60]

Is it Expeditionary Forces Canteen?

[Terry]

Thanks,Lee that's what I have guessed. Anybody out there have any information on this organization?

[Guest Hill 60]

I think there was a thread on this sometime back. I'm not sure but didn't the EFC become the NAAFI?

[Staffsyeoman]

As NAAFI themselves put it:

"The origins of modem NAAFI date back to 1894 when three dissatisfied officers formed the Canteen and Mess Co-operative Society. By 1913 the Canteen Scandal, in which many officers and Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) were dismissed for malpractice, had persuaded other units to join the society. Traders were back on the scene at the start of World War 1 as there were no canteens in France. But a year later one reputable trader and the Co-operative formed the Expeditionary Force Canteens, leading in 1917, to the formation of the Army Canteen Committee. Later that year the Navy joined the Co-operative and it became the Navy and Army Canteen Board. At the end of the war, the RAF joined up.

Memory again... didn't it (later) become the 'Expeditionary Forces Institute', which, IIRC, is 'NAAFI, abroad, on active service,in uniform'. I think I remember an EFI member aboard an RFA getting a Distinguished Service Medal for shooting down an enemy aircraft in 'Gulf War 1'.

[Guest stevebec]

In the AIF there were many so called christian groups that operated in Egypt and France and ran canteens for the troops.

During the war the AIF decided to raise there own group and called it the "AIF Canteens".

This was manned by both soldiers sent from Australia and men who had been medical under graded in the country, either France or Egypt.

They worked of a Military rank structure the same as the Army.

The modern Canteens were called AFCanS and in Veitnam had military ranks and some civys, now they are all civys but I am not sure if this is still working as we had a number of reforms since I retired.

S.B