Thanks,
Geriaviator for your lovely tales!
Our Mess dhobi at Tengah was marked with small stitches of coloured cotton in the inside label/collar/etc. ISTR my colour was a simple, single, red stitch. I never inspected anyone else's laundry ti see how complex the codes got, but with c. 50 of us living in it must have been a task ... unless each Batman had his own dhobi-wallah for HIS Sahibs.
I was just grateful that it all worked, seamlessly.