A 126-year-old Cadbury chocolate bar heading to auction this week sits at the intersection of brand history, war, and royal authority.
The chocolate bar is expected to sell for around R4,500. Source: Lockdale Auctioneers and Valuers.
Commissioned for soldiers
The bar was produced in 1900 during the Second Boer War, when British authorities commissioned chocolate for soldiers stationed in South Africa.
Queen Victoria ordered three British chocolate manufacturers — JS Fry & Sons, Cadbury and Rowntree — to produce more than 100,000 tins, each containing half a pound of plain chocolate.
According to the National Trust, the companies — all Quaker-owned — were opposed to the war and initially refused payment for the order, donating the chocolate in unbranded tins.
However, Queen Victoria reportedly insisted that soldiers should know the chocolate was British in origin. The manufacturers ultimately agreed to mark the contents, while the tins themselves remained unbranded.
New year message
Each tin carried the inscription “South Africa 1900” and a handwritten message from the Queen: “I wish you a happy New Year.”
The surviving Cadbury bar, still sealed inside its original tin, is now expected to fetch £200–£240 at auction (At least R4,500).
According to Cadbury South Africa, Cadbury only officially entered the South African market just after the war in 1903, when the Cadbury brothers Richard and George appointed a local sales agent to distribute their products locally.
During the Second Boer War, British soldiers stationed in South Africa were among the earliest recipients of Cadbury chocolate on local soil — not as consumers in a commercial market, but through a wartime supply chain shaped by politics, ethics, and imperial messaging.
