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To Peter Hodgkiss, 'Lest we forget' is certainly from Kipling's Recessional and has been almost universally accepted in the English speaking world since WW1 as the key to the remembrance of those who have fallen in war. However, for it be used with this meaning in 1906 strikes me as being unlikely and I find it strange that it should appear at that time on a match case, an every-day object, although it may just have been designed to remind its owner of Kipling's words with respect to the Empire, rather than the fallen. Another possibility is that the words were engraved later, towards the end of WW1. I have several match-cases and a couple have blank spaces originally intended to take engraved crests or initials but which were never used. Match-cases were going out of fashion towards the end of WW1 but a second-hand one with such a new inscription might well have been used as a gift at the end of the war. If 'Lest we forget' had acquired its current significance by 1906, I would be grateful to anyone who could give me an appropriate reference. Roger Ayers ----- Original Message ----- From: pete To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 11:50 AM Subject: Vesta Case I wonder ir any member can help me. I have a Vesta case in my possession (for containing matches) which is 50mm X 40 mm X 12 mm. It is Silver Hall Marked as being made in 1906. On one face it has the inscription 'Lest we forget'. Is this a quotation from Kiplings Poem 'Recessional'? Peter Hodgkiss