Although a variety of brands was available to British troops, probably the most popular was the Woodbine, a strong unfiltered cigarette manufactured by WD & HO Wills from the 1880s.

Woodbines were often considered "the army cigarette" during the First World War, when a well known army chaplain, Geoffrey Kennedy, acquired the nickname "Woodbine Willie" for his habit of handing out cigarettes along with Bibles, and the association stuck. The link between Kennedy and the cigarette was so strong that, when he died in 1929, a packet of Woodbines was placed on his coffin.

The same brand of cigarettes crops up frequently in reminiscences of the Second World War - Woodbines are referenced frequently, for instance, in the comedian Spike Milligan's bawdy war memoirs. For example this passage, discussing the voyage from North Africa to Sicily prior to the Allied landings at Salerno in 1943:

As I lay, stretched out on top of the huge Scammell lorry, believing I would surely die at Salerno, I started to cogitate on my Will, the last one I had made out was when I was due to get killed in the North African landings, however, we had arrived too late. My most expensive possession was my trumpet, I wanted that buried with me in case I am buried alive, I could blow a few bars and they would dig me up again.

Second most expensive item, 20 Wills Woodbines in an old tobacco tin. Then there were the women... "Listen to this, Kidgell – I want you to be a witness, it is my last Will and Testament."

"You're making it out on top of a lorry?" he said in disgust.

"No better place – listen, my women – I leave Ivy Chandler and three Woodbines to Gunner Chalky White. I leave Kay of Herstmonceux to Gunner Devine, I leave Betty Ormsman and one Woodbine to Gunner Kidgell."

"Is that the one with the big boobs?"

"Yer."

"Smashing... but only one Woodbine?"

"That's all you'll have time for with her!"

Sources

Spike Milligan, Monty: His Part in My Victory

Alan Wilkinson, The Church of England and the First World War