Rationing in the United Kingdom

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Civilian rationing: A shopkeeper cancels the coupons in a British housewife's ration book in 1943

Rationing was introduced by the government of the United Kingdom several times during the 20th century, mostly during and immediately after war.[1] [2]

At the start of World War II (1939), the United Kingdom imported 20 million long tons (20 Mt) of food per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of cereals and fats. The population was between 46 million (46,038 thousand as measured in the 1931 census) and 52 million (53,225 thousand as measured in the 1951 census).[3] It was one of the principal strategies of the Axis to attack shipping bound for the United Kingdom, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission.

To deal with sometimes extreme shortages, the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. To buy most rationed items, each person had to register at chosen shops, and was provided with a ration book containing coupons. The shopkeeper was provided with enough food for registered customers. Purchasers had to take ration books with them when shopping, so the relevant coupon or coupons could be cancelled.

Contents

World War I

[icon] This section requires expansion with: 1914-1919 war. (December 2009)
A World War I government leaflet detailing the consequences of breaking the rationing laws.

During World War I, the United Kingdom declared a blockade of the North Sea, to which Germany responded by using its U-boats (submarines) to sink ships carrying military equipment or food to the United Kingdom, food becoming more important as the war continued, especially after the declaration of unlimited U-boat warfare. In about two years, the United Kingdom had just six weeks' food left and, therefore, had to ration its food supplies. Rationing started at the end of 1917 with sugar and butter remaining on ration until 1920.[4]

The General Strike

The government made preparations to ration food in 1925, in advance of an expected general strike and appointed Food Control Officers for each region. In the event, the Trades Unions of the London docks organized blockade by crowds, but convoys of lorries under military escort took the heart out of the strike, so that the measures did not have to be implemented.[citation needed]

World War II

After World War II began in September 1939 the first commodity to be controlled was petrol, but food rationing was introduced quite soon. On 8 January 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and canned and dried fruit. Strict rationing inevitably created a black market. Almost all controlled items were rationed by weight, but meat, exceptionally, was rationed by price. (All prices need to be considered in the values of the time: the buying power of one shilling was much more than its equivalent (5p) in modern British currency.)

Fresh vegetables and fruit were not rationed but supplies were limited. Some types of imported fruit all but disappeared. Lemons and bananas became virtually unobtainable for most of the war; oranges continued to be sold but greengrocers customarily reserved them for children and pregnant women, who could prove their status by producing their distinctive ration books. Other domestically grown fruit such as apples still appeared from time to time, but again the sellers imposed their own restrictions so that customers were often not allowed to buy, for example, more than one apple each. Many people grew their own vegetables: see digging for victory. In 1942 numerous children between five and seven years old had become used to wartime restrictions. When questioned about bananas, many did not believe such items existed.[5] Game meat such as rabbit and pigeon were not rationed but were not always available.

Child's ration book, used during World War II.

Bread was improved in nutritional quality during the war but it became greyish in colour. Supplies of bread were not formally controlled. An order was passed that bread must not be sold to a customer until the day after it was baked: the stated reasons were to reduce usage because (1) it is difficult to slice just-baked bread thinly; (2) the tastiness of just-baked bread is likely to encourage people to eat it immoderately.[6] In May 1942 an order was passed that meals served in hotels and restaurants must not cost over 5 shillings per customer, and must not be of more than three courses; at most one course could contain meat or fish or poultry (but not more than one of these).[7]

Fish was not rationed but price increased considerably as the war progressed. The government initially allowed this, since it realised that fishermen would need to be able to collect a premium for their catch if they were at risk of enemy attack while at sea, but prices were controlled from 1941.[8] However, like other non-rationed items, fish was rarely freely available as supplies dropped to 30% of pre-war levels,[8] and long queues built up at fishmongers and at fish and chip shops. The quality of wartime chips was often felt to be below standard, because of the low-quality fat available to fish fryers.

As the war progressed most basic foods were rationed, as were other commodities such as clothing. Clothing was rationed on a points system. When it was introduced, on 1 June 1941, no clothing coupons had been issued, and at first the unused margarine coupons in ration books were valid for clothing. Initially the allowance was for approximately one new outfit per year; as the war progressed the points were reduced until buying a coat used almost a year's clothing coupons.

On 1 July 1942 the basic civilian petrol ration was abolished; this was announced on 13 March 1942.[6] (See Ivor Novello#Second World War and last years for a British public figure sent to prison for four weeks for misusing petrol coupons.) After that, vehicle fuel was only available to "official" users, such as the emergency services, bus companies and farmers. The priority users of fuel were always, of course, the armed forces. Fuel supplied to approved users was dyed, and use of this fuel for non-essential purposes was an offence.

Certain foodstuffs that the 1940s British consumer would find unusual, for example whale meat and canned snoek fish from South Africa, were not rationed. However, despite this they did not prove popular.[2][9]

British Restaurants

Main article: British Restaurant

Restaurants were initially exempt from rationing, but this was resented, as the rich could supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and extravagantly. So new rules were introduced: no meal could cost more than five shillings; no meal could have more than three courses; meat and fish could not be served at the same sitting. Establishments known as British Restaurants supplied another almost universal experience of eating away from home. British Restaurants were run by local authorities, who set them up in various premises such as schools and church halls. They evolved from the London County Council's Londoners' Meals Service which originated in September 1940 as a temporary emergency system for feeding those who had been bombed out. By mid-1941 the London County Council was operating 200 of these restaurants; from 1942 to 1944 there were around 2,000 of them.[10] Here a three-course meal cost only 9d. Standards varied, but the best were greatly appreciated and had a large regular clientele. Similar schemes were run in other towns and cities.

Health effects

Food rationing in World War II improved the health of British people; infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose, discounting deaths caused by hostilities. This was because it ensured that everyone had access to a varied diet with enough vitamins.[11][12]

Standard rationing during World War II

The standard rations during World War II are as follows. Quantities are per week unless otherwise stated.[13]

Food rations

Item Maximum level Minimum level Rations (April 1945)
Bacon and Ham 8 oz (227 g) 4 oz (113 g) 4 oz (113 g)
Sugar 16 oz (454 g) 8 oz (227 g) 8 oz (227 g)
Loose Tea 4 oz (113 g) 2 oz (57 g) 2 oz (57 g)
Meat 1 s. 2d. 1s 1s. 2d.
Cheese 8 oz (227 g) 1 oz (28 g) 2 oz (57 g)

Vegetarians were allowed an extra 3 oz (85 g) cheese[14]
Preserves 1 lb (0.45 kg) per month
2 lb (0.91 kg) marmalade		 8 oz (227 g) per month 2 lb (0.91 kg) marmalade
or 1 lb (0.45 kg) preserve
or 1 lb (0.45 kg) sugar
Butter 8 oz (227 g) 2 oz (57 g) 2 oz (57 g)
Margarine 12 oz (340 g) 4 oz (113 g) 4 oz (113 g)
Lard 3 oz (85 g) 2 oz (57 g) 2 oz (57 g)
Sweets 16 oz (454 g) per month 8 oz (227 g) per month 12 oz (340 g) per month

[15]

1s 2d bought about 1 lb 3 oz (540 g) of meat. Offal and sausages were only rationed from 1942 to 1944. When sausages were not rationed, the meat needed to make them was so scarce that they often contained a high proportion of bread. Eggs were rationed and "allocated to ordinary consumers as available"; in 1944 thirty allocations of one egg each were made. Children and some invalids were allowed three a week; expectant mothers two on each allocation.

  • 1 egg per week or 1 packet (makes 12 "eggs") of egg powder per month (vegetarians were allowed two eggs)
  • plus, 24 "points" for four weeks for tinned and dried food.

Arrangements were made for vegetarians so that their rations of meat were substituted by other goods.[14]

Milk was supplied at 3 imp pt (1.7 l) each week with priority for expectant mothers and children under 5; 3.5 imp pt (2.0 l) for those under 18; children unable to attend school 5 imp pt (2.8 l), certain invalids up to 14 imp pt (8.0 l). Each consumer got one tin of milk powder (equivalent to 8 imperial pints or 4.5 litres) every eight weeks.[16]

Non-food rations

Clothing

There were 66 points for clothing per year, in 1942 it was cut to 48 and in 1943 to 36, and in 1945 to 24. In 1945, an overcoat (wool and fully lined) 18 coupons; a man's suit 26-29 (according to lining); men's shoes 9, women's shoes 7; woollen dress 11. Children aged 14–16 got 20 more coupons. Clothing rationing points could be used for wool, cotton and household textiles. People had extra points for work clothes, such as overalls for factory work.[17] No points were required for second-hand clothing or fur coats, but their prices were fixed. Before rationing lace and frills were popular on knickers but these were soon banned so that material could be saved. From March to May 1942 austerity measures were introduced which restricted the number of buttons, pockets and pleats (among other things) on clothes.[18]

Clothes rationing ended on 15 March 1949.

Soap

All types of soap were rationed. Coupons were allotted by weight or (if liquid) by quantity. In 1945, the ration gave four coupons each month; babies and some workers and invalids were allowed more.[18] A coupon would yield:

Fuel

The Fuel and Lighting (Coal) Order 1941 came into force in January 1942. Central heating was prohibited "in the summer months".[18]

Domestic coal was rationed to 15 long hundredweights (1,700 lb; 760 kg) for those in London and the south of England; 20 long hundredweights (2,200 lb; 1,000 kg) for the rest (the southern part of England having generally a milder climate).[18] Some kinds of coal such as anthracite were not rationed, and in the coal-mining areas were eagerly gathered as they were in the Great Depression (see Road to Wigan Pier).

Paper

Newspapers were limited from September 1939, at first to 60% of their pre-war consumption of newsprint. Paper supply came under the No 48 Paper Control Order, 4 September 1942 and was controlled by the Ministry of Production. By 1945 newspapers were limited to 25% of their pre-war consumption. Wrapping paper for most goods was prohibited.[19]

The paper shortage often made it more difficult than usual for authors to get work published. In 1944, George Orwell wrote:

In Mr Stanley Unwin's recent pamphlet Publishing in Peace and War, some interesting facts are given about the quantities of paper allotted by the Government for various purposes. Here are the present figures:-

Newspapers 250,000 tons
H. M. Stationery Office 200,000 "
Periodicals (nearly) 50,000 "
Books 22,000 "

A particularly interesting detail is that out of the 100,000 tons allotted to the Stationery Office, the War Office gets no less than 25,000 tons, or more than the whole of the book trade put together. [...] At the same time paper for books is so short that even the most hackneyed "classic" is liable to be out of print, many schools are short of textbooks, new writers get no chance to start and even established writers have to expect a gap of a year or two years between finishing a book and seeing it published.

—George Orwell, As I Please, Tribune, 20 October 1944[20][21]
Other

Whether rationed or not, many consumer goods became difficult to obtain because of the shortage of components. Examples included razor blades, baby bottles, alarm clocks, frying pans and pots. Balloons and sugar for cakes for birthday parties were partially or completely unavailable. Many fathers saved bits of wood to build toys for Christmas presents,[22]:112-113 and Christmas trees were almost impossible to obtain due to timber rationing.[23]

After World War II

On 8 May 1945 World War II ended in Europe, but rationing continued. Some aspects of rationing became stricter for some years after the war. At the time this was presented as needed to feed people in European areas under British control, whose economies had been devastated by the fighting.[2] This was partly true, but with many British men still mobilised in the armed forces, an austere economic climate, and a centrally-planned economy under the post-war Labour government, resources were not available to expand food production and food imports. Frequent strikes by some workers (most critically dock workers) made things worse.[2]

  • 1 June 1945: The basic petrol ration for civilians was restored.[6]
  • Mid-1946: Continual rain ruined Britain's wheat crop. Bread rationing started.
  • January–March 1947: Winter of 1946–1947 in the United Kingdom: long hard frost and deep snow. Frost destroyed a huge amount of stored potatoes. Potato rationing started.
  • Mid-1947: A transport and dock strike, which among other effects caused much loss of imported meat left to rot on the docks, until the Army broke the strike. The basic petrol ration was stopped.[6]
  • 1 June 1948: The Motor Spirit (Regulation) Act 1948 was passed,[24] ordering a red dye to be to put into some petrol, and that red petrol was only allowed to be used in commercial vehicles, not in private vehicles. A private car driver could lose his driving licence for a year if red petrol was found in his car. A petrol station could be shut down if it sold red petrol to a private car driver. See List of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 1940–1959#1948.
  • June 1948: The basic petrol ration was restored, at a third of its previous size.
  • 1948: Bread came off ration.
  • May 1949: Clothes rationing ended, according to one author[6] because attempts to enforce it were defeated by continual massive illegality (black market, unofficial trade in loose clothing coupons (many forged), bulk thefts of unissued clothes ration books).
  • 23 February 1950: United Kingdom general election, 1950. The Conservative Party campaigned on a manifesto of ending rationing as quickly as possible.[2] The Labour Party was returned with its majority badly slashed.
  • 26 May 1950: Petrol rationing ended.[25]
  • 25 October 1951: United Kingdom general election, 1951. The Conservatives came back into power.
  • February 1953: Sweet rationing ended.
  • September 1953: Sugar rationing ended.
  • 4 July 1954: Meat and all other food rationing ended in Britain.[26]

Even though rationing formally ended in 1954, cheese production remained dramatically affected for decades afterward. During rationing, most milk in Britain was used to make just one kind of cheese, nicknamed "Government Cheddar" (not to be confused with the "government cheese" issued by the US welfare system).[27] This wiped out nearly all other cheese production in the country, and some indigenous varieties of cheese almost disappeared.[27] Later government controls on milk prices continued to discourage production of other varieties of cheese until well into the 1980s.[28]

The Suez Crisis

Petrol rationing was briefly reintroduced in late 1956 during the Suez Crisis but ended again on 14 May 1957.[29] Advertising of petrol on the recently-introduced ITV was banned for a period.

See also

References

  1. ^ Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Ina (2002), Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls and Consumption, 1939-1955, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-925102-5 
  2. ^ a b c d e Kynaston, David (2007), Austerity Britain, 1945-1951, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7475-7985-4 
  3. ^ Macrory, Ian (2010), "Annual Abstract of Statistics, No146 2010 edition", http://statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/AA2010/aa2010final.pdf (Office for National Statistics) 
  4. ^ "When was rationing introduced during the First World War?". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 4 April 2013. 
  5. ^ Reagan, Geoffrey. Military Anecdotes (1992) pp. 19 & 20. Guiness Publishing ISBN 0-85112-519-0
  6. ^ a b c d e Sucking Eggs (largely about wartime rationing in Britain), by Patricia Nicol, Vintage Books, London, 2010, ISBN 9780099521129
  7. ^ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/38329257
  8. ^ a b Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (1946). Fisheries in war time: report on the sea fisheries of England and Wales by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for the Years 1939-1944 inclusive. H.M. Stationery Office. 
  9. ^ Patten, Marguerite, Feeding the Nation, Hamlyn, ISBN 978-0-600-61472-2 
  10. ^ Home Front Handbook, p. 78.
  11. ^ "Wartime Rationing helped the British get healthier than they had ever been". 21 June 2004. Retrieved 20 January 2013. 
  12. ^ "History in Focus: War - Rationing in London WWII". Retrieved 20 January 2013. 
  13. ^ Home Front Handbook, pp. 46–47.
  14. ^ a b Courtney, Tina (April 1992). "Veggies at war". The Vegetarian (Vegetarian Society). Retrieved 19 July 2009. 
  15. ^ Home Front Handbook, p. 46.
  16. ^ Home Front Handbook, p. 47.
  17. ^ Home Front Handbook, pp. 47–48.
  18. ^ a b c d Home Front Handbook, p. 48.
  19. ^ Home Front Handbook, pp. 50–51.
  20. ^ Orwell, George (20 October 1944). "As I Please". Tribune. 
  21. ^ Unwin, Stanley (1944). Publishing in Peace and War. George Allen and Unwin. OCLC 9407037. 
  22. ^ Mackay, Robert (2002). Half the Battle: Civilian Morale in Britain during the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0 7190 5893 7. 
  23. ^ Webley, Nicholas (2003). A Taste of Wartime Britain. Thorogood Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 1 85418 213 7. 
  24. ^ http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/policejl22&div=33&id=&page=
  25. ^ "1950: UK drivers cheer end of fuel rations". BBC. 26 May 1950. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
  26. ^ "Rationing in Britain during the Second World War". www.iwm.org.uk. Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 13 July 2010. 
  27. ^ a b "Government Cheddar Cheese". CooksInfo.com. Retrieved 13 July 2011. 
  28. ^ Potter, Mich (9 October 2007). "Cool Britannia rules the whey". Toronto Star. Retrieved 13 July 2011. 
  29. ^ "1957: Cheers as petrol rationing ended". BBC. 14 May 1957. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 

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