Crown and Anchor

Crown and Anchor: The popular, though officially prohibited, gambling game in the services, played with dice and a coloured cloth marked out in squares. The Ace, a Crown, is usually referred to as "The Lucky old Sergeant Major," and the anchor called the "Mudhook" (Navy slang for an anchor). The players put their stakes on the squares. Usually, two or three partners run a Crown and Anchor board, one man financing the board, a second acting as a sort of umpire, and the third "minding out" or keeping watch for the approach of a military policeman. Luck invariably favours the board, and in the war, when the game was constantly played in out of the way places, it was sometimes said that men in some cases "made hundreds of pounds" at Crown and Anchor, particularly the holders of the board.

References / notes

The above term is listed in our Compendium of the Great War.

This compendium forms the central hub of words, phrases, people, and places relative to the Great War period of 1914–1918. These also include battles, political events, ships, trench slang, British and American service terms and expressions in everyday use, nicknames, sobriquets, the titles of British and Commonwealth Regiments and their origins, and also warfare in general. These words and phrases are contemporary with the war, which is reflected in the language used, some of which may seem derogatory by today's standards. Feel free to expand upon and improve this content.

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