The NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) is a British organisation established in 1920 (6^th December) to provide canteens, retail stores, and recreational services for the British Armed Forces. It played a crucial role in ensuring that servicemen and women had access to food, supplies, and leisure facilities, both in peacetime and wartime. During WW2 the NAAFI expanded hugely to support British and Commonwealth forces worldwide. Today, the NAAFI still exists, but with the reduction of British overseas bases, their role has declined. Now, they mainly support UK based military bases, NATO deployments and even some British forces in overseas garrisons.

A “NAAFI break” is a famous saying (along with a few others, look them up!) which describes a short break for tea and snacks. So, it makes sense that this ashtray would be used in a NAAFI break too.

This one has a very simple “NAAFI” marking on the base, devoid of any chips, cracks, scrapes or scratches to the glass. It’s solid aside from one or two small air bubbles – typical of older glass products. It’s very difficult to date this ashtray, however we know that they were produced from the 1920’s, all the way up to the late 20^th century. We also know that later produced ashtrays (1950 – 1970) were made from thinner glass. The thicker glass typical of glass production of the 1920’s is present with this piece, but also, the grooves for the cigarettes are quite deep. Which is another characteristic of earlier pieces from the 1920’s.