There’s a simple, human picture that keeps coming back in letters, diaries and photographs from the First World War: a ring of diggers, smoke curling up into the cold, someone passing a cigarette or a plug of tobacco around. In the middle of mud and noise, a shared smoke offered a quiet sort of fellowship - a tiny, ordinary comfort that made a brutal place feel a little more like home.
Tobacco as comfort and ritual
Tobacco arrived in many forms - cigarettes, loose plugs of tobacco to chew or roll, pipes and the odd treasured cigar. It came in rations, in parcels from home, and in trades between men. Lighting up signaled a break: a chance to swap yarns, hear news from home, or sit companionably in silence. Passing a smoke was less about nicotine than the gesture itself - offering steadiness and company in a hard place.
A few short voices from the line
-
“Why mother sent me a tin of tobacco is beyond me — had it been cigarettes, all right.” - Lieut. T. J. Richards (diary, Jan 1916).
-
“In addition to these there are tobacco, cigarettes, liquorice, and insect powder.” - Otago Witness (report on Dominion parcels), 10 May 1916.
-
“Felt very shaky, but, after smoking a cigarette which I got from one of the chaps there, seemed to feel much better.” - Percy Smythe (diary).
-
An officers’ note: “After dinner we sit outside our biscuit‑box houses . . . and enjoy some excellent cigars of the C.O.’s.” - Major John Graham Gillam (Gallipoli diary).
Those brief lines tell the same story: tobacco was an expected comfort from home and from mates, and a smoke handed round could be almost as meaningful as a letter.
New Zealand soldier resting and smoking a pipe in the deserts of North Africa. (Colorized)
Pipes, cigars and the question of rank
There was a bit of social signaling in what men smoked. Officers more often had pipes or cigars - items that cost more and fit a gentler, officerly image - while many enlisted men favoured cigarettes or plug tobacco because they were cheaper and easily shared in cramped conditions. But these were loose patterns, not hard rules: prized cigars might be savoured by a private, and officers sometimes passed their pipe round the group.
Small treasures, big meaning
A single cigar could be saved for a special night, or shared after a hard day. Parcels that included tobacco were tangible links to home - proof that someone cared enough to send comforts. The etiquette was simple: offer first, accept with thanks, and don’t be greedy - manners that mattered when possessions were scarce.
A modern thought
Today we rightly focus on the health harms of smoking. But when we read these voices from 1914–18 it helps to remember the human texture behind the habit: comfort, ritual and fellowship in harsh circumstances.
