How it all began
It all started in 1762 when John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich and an inveterate gambler, called for his manservant to bring him some cuts of beef between slices of bread so that he could eat while continuing to play cards. Soon his friends were asking to have the “same as Sandwich” and the sandwich was born.
The Earl, who was also First Lord of the Admiralty, also funded Captain Cook’s exploration of the Pacific and was rewarded when Cook named the first land he discovered the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawaii).
There is much conjecture over what prompted the Earl to come up with the idea of the first ‘Sandwich’ – was it whim or based on something he had seen elsewhere? - we will never know. What we do know is that in calling for a convenience meal he sparked a trend that would become industry which today employs over 300,000 people in the UK and which has a commercial value of over £6 billion!
If only he had patented the idea!