Communion kit containing: Leather case, canvas carrier (to rear left in photo), silver chalice, 2 sealed cruets, wafers and wafer tray, compartment lid, Union Jack, linens, cleaning cloth.

For services in the field the Union Jack was draped over ammunition cases or other equipment to form the altar.

H/Major Alex Rapson was the Padre of the 48th Highlanders in northern Italy and for the entire campaign to free The Netherlands in 1945. The troops had two affectionate nicknames for him – The Soup Padre and Marrying Sam. Marrying Sam was a reference to a character in the Lil Abner comic strip who was of short stature. The Soup Padre was the most used nickname, given because Padre Rapson had a large iron pot hanging from the rear of his vehicle in which he would make hot soup and take it to Highlanders in their trenches and battle positions when  the troops could not go out of battle to receive hot food from the battalion’s cooks.