Spanking Roger

For almost 200 years new ships in the Royal Navy received a “Gin Commissioning Kit”- a wooden box containing glassware and two bottles of gin. The Gin was mainly for officers while sailors were given Rum.

 

The Royal Navy created their own “proof” of the strength of the liquid they received- by adding grains of gunpowder to the gin and heating the mixture with the sun’s rays and a magnifying glass- only if the gun-powder ignited was the Gin at least 114 proof; thus was invented the concept of “alcohol proof”, the measure of alcohol strength still used in many parts of the world today.

 

Major General Roger Aytoun famously raised the 72nd Regiment of Foot Royal Manchester Volunteers and deployed with them to the Gibraltar Garrison during the Great Siege in 1779. He recruited in Manchester pubs by challenging young men of at least 5 feet 6 inches to either fight him or out-drink him, or sign up…acquiring the nickname “Spanking Roger”. Many recruits reputedly awoke on board passage to Gibraltar…

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Spanking Roger London Dry Gin now available in Export Strength, 43% in Gibraltar and the UK.