The Sutlers Supreme

On This Day – 24 December: NAAFI in the Press

As Christmas Eve arrived, newspapers across Britain and beyond reflected both anticipation and strain. For NAAFI, the days immediately before Christmas were often among the most demanding of the year — balancing seasonal expectations with shortages, public scrutiny, and the unrelenting practicalities of supporting the Armed Forces at home and overseas.

The cuttings below, drawn from different decades and theatres, show NAAFI at a familiar pressure point: supplying festive comforts, defending its practices in public, and continuing its everyday work as Christmas approached.

Last preparations and seasonal pressure

Several of the 24 December reports focus on the final stages of Christmas preparation — whether supplying special foodstuffs, maintaining extended opening hours, or ensuring canteens could meet the heightened expectations that came with the season.

These stories underline how Christmas amplified NAAFI’s visibility. Even routine activities took on added significance as service personnel and civilians alike looked to canteens and clubs for a sense of normality and reassurance on the eve of the holiday.

Liverpool Daily Post, 24 December 1951

Reporting from Egypt’s Canal Zone, this Christmas Eve article highlights the scale of logistical effort required to sustain British forces overseas. Beer, poultry, puddings, and other seasonal comforts were shipped in bulk, even as shortages and operational pressures remained acute. The piece reflects how Christmas magnified both morale needs and supply challenges in active overseas theatres.

Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News, 24 December 1952

A lighter-toned Christmas Eve reflection, this article captures the familiar rush of last-minute preparations while offering glimpses of NAAFI’s presence in everyday service life. Amid humour and anecdote, it hints at how deeply canteens and clubs were woven into the seasonal routines of those far from home.

Express and Echo, 24 December 1960

Framed around the figure of a self-styled “Forces Father Christmas”, this report emphasises the industrial scale of Christmas supply by the early Cold War period. Vast quantities of poultry, puddings, and festive goods were distributed across Europe, underlining how Christmas had become a major logistical operation in its own right.

Evening News, 24 December 1965

Set against the backdrop of active operations in Borneo, this brief report stresses reassurance as much as abundance. Promises of a “grand Christmas” — complete with traditional food and comforts — illustrate NAAFI’s role in sustaining morale even in remote and challenging operational environments.

Service close to the front line

While Christmas Eve coverage often focused on preparation and morale, some reports placed NAAFI far closer to active operations. These stories highlight the risks faced by personnel working in mobile, exposed, and rapidly changing conditions — reminding readers that service support frequently followed the fighting itself.

Derby Telegraph, 24th December 1942

This report situates NAAFI directly alongside the advancing Eighth Army in North Africa. Mobile canteens moved forward at speed, sometimes under fire, as supply followed the front line. The article underlines how closely NAAFI personnel operated alongside combat troops, blurring the boundary between support work and operational danger.

Sunday Express, 24th December 1944

Focusing on EFI staff serving in the Western Desert, this piece highlights the practical challenges of managing cash and accounts in dispersed and mobile wartime conditions. Weekly flights to Tripoli to bank takings illustrate the improvisation required to sustain everyday services in operational theatres, where even routine financial tasks carried exposure and risk.

Hampshire Telegraph, 24th December 1942

Reporting the return home of two young NAAFI assistants after sinking, internment, and months in North Africa, this Christmas Eve article brings a personal dimension to wartime service. It reinforces how civilian NAAFI staff shared the dangers, disruption, and uncertainty of war, even as their experiences often remained at the margins of public attention.

Women, Welfare, and the NAAFI Environment

Contemporary reporting makes clear that women were not merely present within the NAAFI, but were recognised early on as central to its success. As far back as 1928, only seven years after NAAFI’s formation, the St Austell Gazette was already noting the distinct environment created in canteens through women’s involvement—an atmosphere that could not easily be achieved by men alone.

This early observation is significant. Long before the pressures of rearmament or war, women were being associated with the creation of spaces that combined efficiency with familiarity and comfort, contributing directly to morale and welfare rather than merely assisting in administration.

During the Second World War, this understanding translated into greatly expanded responsibility. Women served as managers, cooks, and assistants at home and overseas, running canteens, supervising staff, and maintaining standards under demanding conditions. Press coverage reflects how central these women became to daily service life, particularly in overseas postings where routine and normality were hard to maintain.

Alongside NAAFI’s own workforce, the Women’s Voluntary Services played an important and equal role. From the late 1930s into the post-war years, WVS women worked in close partnership with NAAFI in welfare and hospitality roles. Their contribution was not auxiliary but complementary, forming a civilian–service collaboration focused on the wellbeing of those in uniform.

Together, these accounts show that women—whether employed by NAAFI or serving through the WVS—were integral to the welfare structure that supported Britain’s forces before, during, and after the war.

St Austell Gazette, 24th December 1928

Aberdeen Press and Journal, 24th December 1942

Liverpool Daily Post, 24th December 1945

Bath Chronicle, 24th December 1943

Leicester Daily Mecury, 24th December 1952

Closing Reflection

The contemporary press coverage of the NAAFI reveals an organisation that depended not only on logistics and supply, but on people—many of them women—whose work shaped the daily experience of service life in ways that were both practical and deeply human. Across peace and war, at home and overseas, NAAFI’s presence was felt in moments of routine as much as in times of uncertainty.

Whether managing canteens, serving in overseas postings, or working alongside partners such as the Women’s Voluntary Services, these women helped create spaces of familiarity and order in circumstances that were often defined by movement, separation, and risk. Their work rarely drew attention to itself, yet it formed part of the everyday framework that sustained morale and connection far from home.

The history of NAAFI is therefore not only a story of institutions and supply chains, but of human presence—maintained under pressure, across distance, and sometimes at personal cost. The individuals who appear fleetingly in newspapers, notices, and reports were participants in a shared experience of service, one that linked the ordinary routines of daily life with the extraordinary demands of war.

In remembering NAAFI, it is worth recognising that its greatest contribution often lay not in what it provided, but in what it made possible: continuity amid disruption, familiarity amid change, and a sense of normality in circumstances where very little could be taken for granted.

---

Sources & References

The following contemporary newspaper reports illustrate how NAAFI’s Christmas presence overseas was presented to British readers on 24 December across different years.

Liverpool Daily Post, 24 December 1951
Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News, 24 December 1952
Express and Echo, 24 December 1960
Evening News, 24 December 1965
Derby Telegraph, 24th December 1942
Sunday Express, 24th December 1944
Hampshire Telegraph, 24th December 1942
St Austell Gazette, 24th December 1928
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 24th December 1942
Liverpool Daily Post, 24th December 1945
Bath Chronicle, 24th December 1943
Leicester Daily Mecury, 24th December 1952

Accessed via Findmypast (British Library Newspapers).
Reproduced under fair dealing for non-commercial historical research and commentary.

A Note on This Series

This post brings the “On This Day” series on The Sutlers Supreme to a pause. What began as an idea for a small number of short pieces grew, through the richness of the press cuttings, into a sequence of five posts that covered far more ground than originally intended.

Working through these contemporary reports has been both instructive and rewarding, offering new perspectives on NAAFI’s work and the people who sustained it across different periods and circumstances. For now, this series concludes here, but it may be revisited in the future should further material or themes suggest themselves.