furniture. Besides rationing, the government introduced other methods of saving scarce materials, campaigning to cut down on the unnecessary use of goods. Slogans such as: ‘Is your journey really necessary?’ became catch-phrases. A cartoon character, the squanderbug – a kind of large beetle, with Hitler’s hair – was shown encouraging people to buy things they did not need.
Shortage signs were seen everywhere: ‘No sweets’, ‘No cigarettes’ and, outside pubs, ‘No beer’, were common sights. Another cartoon character appeared; answering to the name of Chad, he was drawn everywhere peering over a wall, with a question mark over his head and the question ‘Wot, no . . . ?’ The missing word could be any one of a thousand things.
Mike Bree from Cornwall:
The whole thing started slowly (our first Christmas we hardly saw a difference – they did allow us that!), then gathered momentum until the ‘darkest days’ – and then the ‘shortages’ went from bad to worse as the things we had started the war with – clothes, household goods, etc. – wore out, were broken or lost, or were taken from us by the Luftwaffe, or by our own government, by regulation or by appealing for ‘the war effort’. Waste of all kinds was strongly discouraged, every bit of metal, glass, cardboard, wood, rubber, wool, everything, was vital. Even our town hall had to lose its courtyard railings, as did so many public and private buildings – there was hell to pay when they were found years later, rusting and forgotten in railway sidings.
People had to make things last, but the longer the war went on the more worn out things became. Vivien Hatton remembers a trip to an ice-rink near the end of the war: ‘We had to borrow the skates from the rink. They had holes in!’
SIX
The Food Front
D IG FOR V ICTORY
To cut down on the need for imports every inch of space was used to grow food, even the moat around the Tower of London; some tennis courts and even cricket pitches were ploughed up. People were encouraged to ‘Dig for Victory’, and this was an activity in which children could be particularly useful. Often children would take over some part of their garden for vegetable growing; even the earth covering the Anderson shelter was used for growing food.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries issued a series of ‘Dig for Victory’ leaflets, giving tips not only on growing vegetables, but also on preserving food, making jam, etc.
R ATIONING
The pre-war government had created a Food Department in 1939, with the threat of war in mind, and in September of that year the National Register was set up to keep track of the population. Using this information, the government supplied everyone with a ration book. Because it was felt that different groups of people needed different types or amounts of food – for instance, children received orange juice and cod liver oil, and younger children got extra milk – there were several different ration books. The main types were the Adult book, which was a buff colour, the Baby’s book, which was green, and the Junior book, which was blue. On 1 November 1939, it was announced that butter and bacon (or ham) were to become the first goods to be put ‘on the ration’: 4 ounces of each per person per week, beginning on 8 January 1940. At the end of December 1939 the government further announced that sugar was also to be rationed – 12 ounces a week. In March 1940 meat became rationed, not by amount, but by value: 1 s 10 d (9p) worth per person per week. In May the production of non-essential consumer goods was restricted. By now the Food Department had become the Ministry of Food (the MoF), under Lord Woolton, who gave his name to the Woolton Pie (p. 50).
By Christmas 1940, tea, that great British staple, had been rationed to 2 ounces a week, and the sugar ration was cut to 8 ounces. Worse, it was announced that after Christmas there would be no more bananas, and no fresh or tinned fruit
Shortage signs were seen everywhere: ‘No sweets’, ‘No cigarettes’ and, outside pubs, ‘No beer’, were common sights. Another cartoon character appeared; answering to the name of Chad, he was drawn everywhere peering over a wall, with a question mark over his head and the question ‘Wot, no . . . ?’ The missing word could be any one of a thousand things.
Mike Bree from Cornwall:
The whole thing started slowly (our first Christmas we hardly saw a difference – they did allow us that!), then gathered momentum until the ‘darkest days’ – and then the ‘shortages’ went from bad to worse as the things we had started the war with – clothes, household goods, etc. – wore out, were broken or lost, or were taken from us by the Luftwaffe, or by our own government, by regulation or by appealing for ‘the war effort’. Waste of all kinds was strongly discouraged, every bit of metal, glass, cardboard, wood, rubber, wool, everything, was vital. Even our town hall had to lose its courtyard railings, as did so many public and private buildings – there was hell to pay when they were found years later, rusting and forgotten in railway sidings.
People had to make things last, but the longer the war went on the more worn out things became. Vivien Hatton remembers a trip to an ice-rink near the end of the war: ‘We had to borrow the skates from the rink. They had holes in!’
SIX
The Food Front
D IG FOR V ICTORY
To cut down on the need for imports every inch of space was used to grow food, even the moat around the Tower of London; some tennis courts and even cricket pitches were ploughed up. People were encouraged to ‘Dig for Victory’, and this was an activity in which children could be particularly useful. Often children would take over some part of their garden for vegetable growing; even the earth covering the Anderson shelter was used for growing food.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries issued a series of ‘Dig for Victory’ leaflets, giving tips not only on growing vegetables, but also on preserving food, making jam, etc.
R ATIONING
The pre-war government had created a Food Department in 1939, with the threat of war in mind, and in September of that year the National Register was set up to keep track of the population. Using this information, the government supplied everyone with a ration book. Because it was felt that different groups of people needed different types or amounts of food – for instance, children received orange juice and cod liver oil, and younger children got extra milk – there were several different ration books. The main types were the Adult book, which was a buff colour, the Baby’s book, which was green, and the Junior book, which was blue. On 1 November 1939, it was announced that butter and bacon (or ham) were to become the first goods to be put ‘on the ration’: 4 ounces of each per person per week, beginning on 8 January 1940. At the end of December 1939 the government further announced that sugar was also to be rationed – 12 ounces a week. In March 1940 meat became rationed, not by amount, but by value: 1 s 10 d (9p) worth per person per week. In May the production of non-essential consumer goods was restricted. By now the Food Department had become the Ministry of Food (the MoF), under Lord Woolton, who gave his name to the Woolton Pie (p. 50).
By Christmas 1940, tea, that great British staple, had been rationed to 2 ounces a week, and the sugar ration was cut to 8 ounces. Worse, it was announced that after Christmas there would be no more bananas, and no fresh or tinned fruit
Similar Books
