Canteen medal: The Good Conduct Medal awarded to men with four good conduct stripes. Being sometimes gained by men who were hard drinkers, but had sufficiently strong heads to avoid betraying themselves and so escaping a charge of being drunk, the medal acquired often jestingly the name of Canteen Medal.
Also, an old Army term for beer stains on a soldier's tunic. [1]
References / notes
- ↑ Edward Fraser and John Gibbons (1925). Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases. Routledge, London p.47.
The above term is listed in our Compendium of the Great War.
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