Woodbine (cigarette)

Woodbine

An old pack of Woodbine cigarettes, photographed at the Musée Somme 1916 of Albert (Somme), France
Product type	Cigarette
Owner	Imperial Tobacco
Country	England, United Kingdom
Introduced	1888
Previous owners	W. D. & H. O. Wills

Woodbine is a brand of cigarette made in England by W. D. & H. O. Wills (now Imperial Tobacco) since 1888.

Noted for its strong unfiltered cigarettes, the brand was popular in the early 20th century, especially with army men during the First and Second World War. In the Great War, the British Army chaplain Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy MC was affectionately nicknamed "Woodbine Willie" by troops on the Western Front to whom he handed out cigarettes along with bibles and spiritual comfort.

In common parlance, the unfiltered high-tar Woodbine was one of the brands collectively known as "gaspers" until about 1950, because new smokers found their strong smoke difficult to inhale. A filtered version was launched in the United Kingdom in 1948, but was discontinued in 1988.

In Chapter 4 of The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy, the protagonist Sebastian Dangerfield orders "a double and some Woodbines."