An Army veteran has recalled the challenges of cooking Christmas dinner for 200 soldiers in South Korea.
Bob Sewell, 89, was in charge of a two-man team feeding the men breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily while stationed in East Asia with the Army Catering Corps 70 years ago.
Mr Sewell, who is now a resident at Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton, said he faced many daily challenges cooking with basic equipment and limited ingredients, but his toughest came during his first Christmas in South Korea in 1954.
Bob taking part in a cookery activity at Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton, more than 60 years after leaving the Army Catering Corps (Image: Royal Star & Garter)
He was on his first posting and attached to the Northamptonshire Regiment, where he prepared meals for the troops three times a day, despite his relatively limited culinary experience.
Food for the soldiers consisted mostly of items including ham, chicken, corned beef, eggs, dried mash, and tinned milk.
But on Christmas Day, things took a surprising turn when Mr Sewell was approached by the Commanding Officer.
He said: “I was given two big turkeys and told to cook them.
“And I thought how the hell am I going to cook them on an open stove?”
However, help was on hand thanks to resourceful colleagues.
Bob runs his own bingo sessions at Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton (Image: Royal Star & Garter)
Mr Sewell continued: “The Commanding Officer sent some Royal Engineers over, who made me an oven out of two oil drums.
“They cut the rims off, welded them together, and put them on a brick standing.
“They had a pipe and a petrol tank, which dripped on a hot plate at the back and sent flames round the oven.
“And we cooked the turkeys in that.
“They were a bit scorched, but they were edible.”
Mr Sewell was also able to use the impromptu oven to cook chicken and legs of pork, to ensure all the men had a memorable Christmas dinner.
Mr Sewell had joined the Army in 1954, aged 18.
After leaving the Army, Bob cooked at a hospital for children and young people with Down’s syndrome (Image: Royal Star & Garter)
He said: “They decided I’d be in the Army Catering Corps, even though I had no experience beforehand.
“I had to do military training for six months in Aldershot, the same as everybody else, but then I was sent to training school for cooks for two weeks.
“That was it.”
Looking back, Mr Sewell said: “Everyone says what terrible food it was in the Army, but we only had primitive equipment to use.
“And to be honest, the food we prepared was reasonably good.
“At first I was nervous cooking for so many people, after such a short period of training.
“They say an army marches on its stomach, so it was a very important position in the camp.
“Where we were stationed was like a desert, it was quite desolate.
“We had hot summers, and in the winter it was cold, really cold.
“There were times when we would crack eggs open and they would come out frozen.”
Mr Sewell also served in Japan and Hong Kong, before demobbing in 1960.
He put the skills he learned in the Army to good use, later cooking at a hospital for children and young people with Down’s syndrome.
He has been at Royal Star & Garter since December 2022, and enjoys taking part in cookery and arts activities, and also calling out the numbers for the popular Bob’s Bingo sessions.