The Regimental Wager Book
One of the more unusual books in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Research and Collections Centre is the regimental wager book. Books like this lived in the officer’s Mess, where they were used to record wagers made between officers. Each entry lists a date, location, the names of the wagering parties, the names of the umpire or umpires, and the forfeit and final result.
Below are transcriptions of four example wagers in the 1898-1980 book, by which time the KOYLI had been reorganised into the Light Infantry. We’ve removed the names of the individuals in the book to protect their privacy, as at least a few of those named may still be alive.
Roberts Heights, Pretoria, 11 May 1907
2nd Lieutenant Clark and 2nd Lieutenant Hoghton.
2nd Lt. Hoghton backs himself on “Little Men” to beat 2nd Lt. Clark on “General Botha”. Both ponies are property of 2nd Lt. Brooke (at present away on trek) distance about 4 furlongs on the flat, catch weights. Loser to present a new clock to the Mess, clock to be approved by P.M.L.
Umpires: Lt. Littledale, 2nd Lt. Thorp.
Hoghton beat Clark by one length and a half.
While the wording is a little vague, the challenge for these men, stationed in Pretoria in South Africa and likely involved in colonial policing in the aftermath of the Second Boer War, was to ride out four furlongs (half a mile) and then to presumably pick up some weights and ride back. It’s possible they may have used a sword, lance, or stick to do so, as this was a relatively common exercise for horsemen to improve their aim and strength.
Blackdown, Sussex, 5 March, 1929
Lieutenant. Withycombe and Lieutenant. B W Wood
Lt. Wood bets Lt. Withycombe that he cannot drink a bottle of stout from a soup plate with a teaspoon, and remain sober and well for one hour after start. Loser to present a weekly illustrated paper to the Mess for one year.
Umpires: Lieutenant A F S Douglass and Second Lieutenant J P O O’Brien-Twohig
Withycombe wins; being neither drunk or sick within one hour.
One must imagine that it was a fairly strong bottle of stout, or that Lt. BW was expected to drink it exceptionally quickly in order to potentially become visibly drunk after the fact. No copies of Lt. AW’s illustrated paper have survived either, unfortunately.
Hilden, Germany, 25 October, 1959
Mr. W and Mr. B.
W maintains that B cannot drink a trilby hat full of beer in 8 minutes. Loser to pay two bottles of champaign, and for the hat.
B wins in 7.5 minutes.
(In another set of handwriting) it turned out the trilby was the CO’s.
Oh dear. We don’t know how the commanding officer responded to having his hat filled with beer, but one can’t imagine it was terribly positive. Wagers made across Germany in the wake of the Second World War often include the consumption of German beer, or include it in the forfeit in some way. The reputation it enjoys to this day is probably at least part of the reason for that. Hopefully the CO enjoyed his new hat.
Gibraltar, 4 December, 1979
Captain E and 2nd Lieutenant S.
Captain E wagers 2nd Lt. S 2 bottles of the finest champagne that is available in the Mess at that time that S cannot wear E’s sword belt with comfort to the satisfaction of the umpires by the thirtieth of January 1980.
The umpires decides that although S managed to get the belt around his vast girth, they decided that it was not comfortable. Result: S to pay!
Again, our umpire isn’t named. Despite Second Lieutenant S’s poor treatment in this wager, he does feature in a later entry, dated to 3 months in the future. Here, he wins another bet against a different officer regarding who could lose the most weight in the time covered, and gained a bottle of champagne for his efforts.
There are many more wagers in the book, covering far too many topics and contests for us to include them all here. Hopefully this has given you an insight into a small part of life in the KOYLI that doesn’t often feature in how we remember the regiment today.
If you’re interested in visiting our new Research and Collections Centre in the City of Doncaster Archives on Chequer Road, it will be open on the 11 September 2024, 10am – 4pm, as part of the this year’s Heritage Open Days. No bookings will be required, just drop in! If you’d like to learn more please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected].
All images of objects from the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Collection are shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), credit to Heritage Doncaster.