of the army. Until this time, soldiers had a daily allowance of a pound of meat and a pound of bread a day, and were expected to carry and cook their own food. Ignorance led to undercooking and food poisoning on a large scale. Soyer decided that each regiment should have a trained cook, armed with a book of simple recipes which he put together for the purpose. He had brought with him a small team of cooks, whom he sent out to teach selected soldiers. The army adopted his arrangements permanently, giving rise to the appointment of regimental cooks and eventually, decades later, the creation of the Army Catering Corps. Before leaving London Soyer had devised field stoves, which he had sent out to him for use in camp kitchens. They were horse-drawn boilers that could cook whether the army was stationary or moving. They proved so efficient and economical that the army used them, with later modifications, for more than a century. Nightingale wrote of them, "Soyer's stoves will boil, stew, bake and steam, in short, do everything but grill, ensuring that variety in cooking which is proved essential to health". Soyer's contribution to the war effort brought him further fame in Britain. In May 1857 Soyer returned to London. He published A Culinary Campaign, recounting his experiences in the Crimea and his reform of army catering. He included a section of recipes for military or naval cooking, such as "Salt Meat for Fifty Men", "Salt Pork with Mashed Peas for One Hundred Men" and "Pot-au-Feu, Camp Fashion". In March 1858 he lectured at the United Service Institution on cooking for the army and navy. He was then asked to design new kitchens for the existing Wellington Barracks. Death While in the Crimea, Soyer had been seriously ill with dysentery and Crimea fever (a form of brucellosis). After his return to London his health remained precarious, but he ignored his doctors' advice to rest (and to give up alcohol, of which he had long been a devotee). In July 1858 he was able to attend the official opening of the kitchens he had designed for the Wellington Barracks, but rapidly declined thereafter. He had a stroke in early August, and died at his house in St John's Wood on 5 August 1858, aged 48. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery under the elaborate memorial he had erected