Rationing in the United Kingdom during and after World War II

Rationing in the United Kingdom refers to rationing

Rationing

Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...

introduced by the government of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

several times during the 20th century, mostly during and immediately after war.
At the start of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

(1939), the United Kingdom imported 20 million tons

Long ton

Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...

of food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

stuffs per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

, 70% of its cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

and sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, nearly 80% of fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

s and about 70% of cereal

Cereal

Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...

s and fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...

s. The population was between 46 million (46,038 thousand as measured in the 1931 census

Census in the United Kingdom

Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with...

) and 52 million (53,225 thousand as measured in the 1951 census). It was one of the principal strategies of the Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

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

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.

Timeline of rationing

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the United Kingdom declared a blockade of the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

, to which Germany

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

responded by using its U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

s (submarines) to sink ships carrying military equipment or food to the United Kingdom, food becoming the 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 1918 with sugar and butter remaining on ration until 1920.

After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 the first commodity to be controlled was petrol, but food rationing was also introduced quite soon. On 8 January 1940, bacon

Bacon

Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...

, butter

Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

and sugar

Sugar

were rationed. This was followed by meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

, tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

, eggs

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

, lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

, milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

and canned

Tin can

A tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is a sealed container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal. Many cans require opening by cutting the "end" open; others have removable covers. Cans hold diverse contents: foods, beverages, oil, chemicals, etc."Tin" cans are made...

fruit

Fruit

. Strict rationing inevitably created a black market. This was illegal, and buyers could be tricked with cheaper substitutes such as horsemeat instead of beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

.

Civilians were required to eat all of their given rations. It was seen that if the population did not consume enough calories, perhaps to stay slim, they would become less efficient in the workforce. Failure to eat all of one's rations was not considered a serious offence although some prison sentences were given for this "crime".

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.)

Some types of fruit which had been imported all but disappeared. Lemons and bananas became virtually unobtainable for most of the war, and although oranges continued to be sold they were customarily reserved by greengrocers for children and pregnant women, who could prove their status by producing their distinctive ration books. Other 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.

One of the few foods not rationed was fish. The price of fish increased considerably as the war progressed, but the government allowed this since it realised fishermen would need to be able to collect a premium for their catch if they were to be persuaded to put to sea in the face of enemy submarines. However, like other non-rationed items fish was rarely freely available, and long queues built up at fishmongers as well as 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 friers.

As the war progressed most basic foods were rationed, as were other commodities such as clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

. The "civilian" petrol ration was abolished in 1942, and 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.

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 to the point where the purchase of a coat constituted almost an entire year's clothing.

A further innovation was a separate points system for some kinds of food. Points were separate from coupons for such basics as meat, fat and sugar, and could be "spent" on various semi-luxury items, giving the consumer some choice once again. Tinned food, for example, was "priced" in points as well as money, and if a potential shortage developed of baked beans, consumption of them was discouraged by raising the points value. If, on the other hand, stocks of tapioca became excessive, reducing its points value triggered more sales. Points values were reviewed by the Ministry of Food once a month, and changes published in the press.

Sweets (candy) and chocolate, although sharply reduced in variety, were rationed slightly differently. Each consumer was given "personal points", which could be spent anywhere, without registration. Normal coupons were simply cancelled, usually with a rubber stamp or an indelible pencil, but points for clothes and sweets had to be cut out and handed to the shopkeeper, who had the fiddly task of threading them on strings so that they could be surrendered in bulk in return for fresh wholesale supplies. Offering already-detached coupons was not usually allowed: to make the transaction legal, the shopkeeper had to cut them from the consumer's book at the time of the sale. There was one exception: detached clothes coupons could be sent for mail order purchases.

Certain foodstuffs that the 1940s British consumer would find unusual, for example whale

Whale

Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...

meat and canned snoek

Thyrsites atun

Thyrsites atun, the "snoek" or "Cape snoek", is a long, thin, perch-like commercial food fish belonging to the Gempylidae family. It is found in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere. It is also known in Australasia as barracouta though it is not related to the barracuda.It can grow up to long and...

fish from South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, were not rationed, however despite this they did not prove popular.

Restrictions affected almost every consumer product. Cigarettes (and matches) were often hard to obtain, and bombed-out families were given priority when furniture and textiles such as sheets and blankets were available. Often they were not, and then waiting lists had to be drawn up. Many other products, ranging from cameras and china to alarm clocks and lawnmowers, mostly ceased to be available at all as the war went on. Even simple items like spoons and teacups became virtually unobtainable at times.

Books were printed to a strict "wartime economy standard", with thinner paper, narrower margins and cheaper binding, but many titles were out of print for long periods. As mentioned in more detail below, "newsprint" (the paper used for newspapers) was also restricted, and this meant there were restrictions on how many pages a newspaper could have. At times, some newspapers were reduced to just four pages – a simple folded sheet.

Long distance coach services were withdrawn, although later on some were selectively restored from time to time, mainly so that parents could visit their evacuated children in the country. Local buses and trams continued to run, but frequencies were reduced and the last services often ran earlier in the evening. The government also considered rationing rail travel, but in the event, people were urged to travel only when they had to ("Is your journey really necessary?"), and timetables were reduced, partly to save coal but also to provide more capacity for trains carrying munitions, food and fuel. The absence of any official petrol ration for civilians and the increased travel demands of war workers and the armed forces meant that those buses and trains which did run were often extremely overcrowded.

Gas and electricity remained unrationed, but households were set "fuel targets" which were, in spite of their name, no more than a recommendation about maximum use. One famous restriction concerned bathwater, which was supposed to be no more than five inches (12.7cm) deep.

Alcoholic drinks were also unrationed by the government, although a points system was considered. Instead, pubs and bars often instituted their own rationing, limiting customers to only a drink or two on each visit. Even so pubs often ran out of beer, while the price of other drinks, such as whisky, became so high that they effectively disappeared as far as most people were concerned.

Rationing continued after the end of the war in 1945, although the basic petrol ration for civilians was restored when peace returned. Indeed, some aspects of rationing actually became stricter for some years after the war. Bread, which had been reduced in quality during the war but not formally controlled, was rationed from 1946 to 1948; potato rationing began in 1947.

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. This was partly true, but with a large number of 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 imports. Frequent strikes by some workers (most critically dock workers) also made things worse.

At the 1950 General Election

United Kingdom general election, 1950

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...

, the Conservative Party campaigned on a manifesto of ending rationing as quickly as possible. During the following Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

-controlled parliament, petrol rationing ended on 26 May 1950. The Conservatives came to power in 1951

United Kingdom general election, 1951

The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...

. Sweet rationing ended in February 1953, and sugar rationing ended in September 1953, however the end of all food rationing did not come until 4 July 1954, with meat the last to become freely available again.

Petrol rationing was briefly reintroduced in late 1956 during the Suez Crisis

Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...

but ended again on 14 May 1957. Advertising of petrol on the recently-introduced ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

was banned for a period.

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".
This wiped out all nearly other cheese production in the country, and some indigenous varieties of cheese almost disappeared. Later government controls on milk prices continued to discourage production of other varieties of cheese until well into the 1990s.

British Restaurants

Restaurants were initially exempt from rationing, but this was resented, as the rich could supplement their food allowance by eating out

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

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 Restaurant

British Restaurant

British Restaurants were communal kitchens created during the Second World War to ensure communities and people who had run out of rationing coupons were still able to eat....

s 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

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London 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 2000 of them. Here a three-course meal cost only 9d

Penny (British pre-decimal coin)

The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....

. Standards varied, but the best were greatly appreciated and had a large regular clientele. Similar schemes were run in other towns and cities.

Standard rationing

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

Food rations

Notes:
1. Tea bag
  Tea bag
  A tea bag is a small, porous sealed bag containing tea leaves and used for brewing tea. Tea bags are commonly made of paper, silk or plastic. The bag contains the tea leaves while the tea is brewed, making it easier to dispose of the leaves, and performs the same function as a tea infuser...
  
  s were unknown, or virtually so, until the 1950s.
2. 1s 2d bought about 1 lb (0.45359237 kg) of meat
  Meat
  Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
  
  . Offal
  Offal
  Offal , also called, especially in the United States, variety meats or organ meats, refers to the internal organs and entrails of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but includes most internal organs other than...
  
  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
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

per week or 1 packet (makes 12 "eggs") of egg powder
Powdered eggs
Powdered eggs are fully dehydrated eggs. They are made in a spray dryer in the same way that powdered milk is made. The major advantages of powdered eggs over fresh eggs are the price, reduced weight per volume of whole egg equivalent, and the shelf life...

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.

Milk was supplied at 3 imp pt (1.7 l) each week for priority to expectant mothers and children under 5; 3.5 imp pt (2 l) for those under 18; children unable to attend school 5 imp pt (2.8 l), certain invalids up to 14 imp pt (8 l). Each consumer got one tin of milk powder (equivalent to 8 pints (4.5 l)) every 8 weeks.

Clothing

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 overall
Overall
An overall, coverall, over all, or dungarees, is a type of garment which is usually used as protective clothing when working...

s for factory work.

No points were required for second-hand

Second-Hand

Second-Hand was a 2005 Romanian film directed by Dan Piţa.-Plot summary:The film's plot surrounds the romantic involvement of two contrasting characters: Petre , a Mafioso, and Andreea , a young violin player. The pair meet and fall in love...

clothing or fur coat

Coat (clothing)

A coat is a long garment worn by both men and women, for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front, closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a belt, or a combination of some of these...

s, but their prices were fixed. Before rationing lace

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...

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.

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. A coupon would yield: bar hard soap bar toilet soap No. 1 liquid soap soft soap

Soft soap

Soft soap can refer to one of the following:* a general purpose soap that is liquid or easily soluble, as opposed to a hard soap which will only dissolve sparingly.* a hygiene product made exclusively from natural oils...

soap flakes soap powder

Laundry detergent

Laundry detergent, or washing powder, is a substance that is a type of detergent that is added for cleaning laundry. In common usage, "detergent" refers to mixtures of chemical compounds including alkylbenzenesulfonates, which are similar to soap but are less affected by "hard water." In most...

Fuel

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

Domestic coal was rationed to 15 hundredweight (cwt) — 3/4 LT for those in London and the south of England; 20 hundredweight — 1 LT for the rest (the southern part of England having generally a milder climate). 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

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

(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, September 4, 1942 and was controlled by the Ministry of Production

Ministry of Production

The Ministry of Production was a British government department created in February 1942, initially under the title Ministry of War Production, but the following month "War" was dropped from the title...

. By 1945 newspapers were limited to 25% of their pre-war consumption. Wrapping paper for most goods was prohibited.

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

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

wrote:

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Timeline of rationing

British Restaurants

Standard rationing

Food rations

Clothing

Soap

Fuel

Paper

See also

External links