Authors: Mike Brown
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 would be imported, except a few oranges, as the shipping space was so badly needed for the war effort.
In January 1941 the value of the meat ration was dropped: first to 1
s
6
d
(7.5p), then to 1
s
2
d
(6p), and again in June to 1
s
(5p). It is said that Winston Churchill enquired why people were complaining about the size of the meat ration; when shown it he remarked that it would be quite enough for him – he thought it was the amount for one meal, it was actually a week’s worth! Jam, marmalade, syrup and treacle went on the ration from 17 March 1941 at 8 ounces per person. Cheese was next: in May the weekly ration was set at 1 ounce, which was increased to 2 ounces from the end of June (registered vegetarians were entitled to extra cheese instead of meat). In July the sugar ration was doubled for a month to encourage people to make their own jam using the large amount of fruit available at that time of the year; children helped with the picking. Later, shortages led to the introduction of milk rationing.
In July 1942 the tea ration for under-5s was abolished, but for most children the worst blow came later that month when sweets were rationed; everyone was allowed 2 ounces a week, raised in August to 3 ounces, and in the same month biscuits were put on points, as were syrup and treacle. An element of choice was introduced. As well as the coupons for specified rationed goods, each ration book contained a number of points coupons. While some items of food were ‘put on points’, the points coupons could be used to buy any items on points. Even before rationing, sweets had been hard to get. A letter from Alan Miles (14 August 1941) ‘I am thankful for the sweets [you sent] as you can’t get a sweet in Hartland for any money.’ June Fidler: ‘We got 2 ounces of sweets a week on rations – we used to buy the smallest sweets we could, pear drops and so on, so that you got a lot of them.’ Special ration-sized chocolate bars were produced, and Barratts introduced the Ration Bag, ‘containing sweets, nuts, pop-corn, etc.’; this later became the Jamboree bag. Shortages of milk meant that milk chocolate was difficult to get – for instance, Rowntrees produced a plain chocolate Kit-Kat in a blue wrapper. Children tried various ways to get round the rationing. Derek Dimond describes one: ‘The worst thing was the shortage of sweets, we used to buy Victory V lozenges which were off rations.’ Other alternatives included ‘Imps’, tiny black lozenges which were extremely hot – they too were off rations.
In August 1942 the cheese ration was increased to 8 ounces. Ration books issued in June 1943 included personal points for sweets and chocolates. Barbara Courtney: ‘I remember we used to go to the shops to get our food rations, 2 ounces of this, 2 ounces of that, then we’d share them. You’d swap your sugar ration for sweets, jam for sugar, and so on.’
Bread was not rationed, and nor were some other foods, such as potatoes and other root vegetables, but they were not always available. News would soon be passed round when a shop had something unusual in and a queue would soon form – during the war queuing became almost a national pastime, and here, too, children could help, both by spotting queues and by saving Mum a place in them.
The Ministry of Food produced a great deal of material on how to make the rations stretch. There were recipe books, and a series of newspaper articles, entitled ‘Food Facts’, which would give tips on cooking in wartime. There was even a radio programme,
The Kitchen Front
, broadcast every morning from Tuesday to Friday at 8.15 am.
Imported fruit, such as peaches and grapes, became almost impossible to get, and even if they were available, prices were extremely high. In 1944 street markets were selling pineapples for 5 guineas (£5.25) each, grapes at 16
s
(80p) for 1 pound and peaches at 2
s
(10p) each. Charles Harris: ‘You never saw oranges. One Christmas, it must have been ’43 or ’44, Dad was in North Africa and he sent us a big basket of oranges. In those days the postman delivered on Christmas Day and they arrived Christmas morning. There were four really big ones – my two brothers, my sister and I had one each. My little brother was a baby – he had a green ration book, and with that you got orange juice.’
In Richmal Crompton’s
William Carries On
(published in 1942), William asks his long-suffering mother for a lemon:
‘Lemons?’ said Mrs. Brown as if she could hardly believe her ears. ‘Lemons? I hardly remember what they look like.’
‘There’s a picture of ’em in the ’cyclopaedia,’ said William helpfully.
‘I don’t think I even want to remember what they look like,’ said Mrs. Brown bitterly. ‘No, I’ve not seen one for weeks.’
‘If you wanted to get hold of one,’ said William, ‘how would you start?’
‘I shouldn’t,’ said Mrs. Brown. ‘I’ve given it up. After all, it’s no use breaking one’s heart over a lemon.’
‘But suppose you had to have one,’ said William, ‘what would you do?’
‘I shouldn’t do anything,’ said Mrs. Brown. ‘What with onions and eggs, and icing sugar and cream, I’ve just given it up. There’s nothing one can do.’
Although there were plenty of chickens in Britain when war broke out in 1939, the bulk of poultry feed was imported, making eggs hard to get. In the summer of 1942 powdered eggs were made available to domestic consumers. A packet, equivalent to twelve eggs, cost 1
s
9
d
(9p). The Ministry of Food ‘War Cookery Leaflet No. 11’ was about powdered eggs, including instructions on ‘How to reconstitute dried egg’ – using one level tablespoonful of egg powder and two of water, ‘mix the egg and water and allow to stand for about five minutes until the powder has absorbed the moisture. Then work out any lumps with a wooden spoon, finally beating with a fork or whisk.’ The leaflet went on to give various recipes, such as scrambled eggs, omelettes and cake mixtures, as well as ‘English Monkey’ and ‘Mock Fried Egg’; these last two are reproduced below:
English Monkey
1 powdered egg
1 cup stale breadcrumbs 1 cup milk
half cup grated cheese
1 tablespoon margarine
half teaspoon salt
pepper
Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk. Melt the margarine in a pan, add the cheese and when melted add the soaked breadcrumbs and the egg (well beaten) and seasoning. Cook for three minutes. Spread on toast.
Mock Fried Egg
1 powdered egg
2 slices wheatmeal bread
salt and pepper
Beat the egg. Cut holes from the centre of each slice of bread with a scone cutter. Dip the slices quickly in water and fry one side until golden brown. Turn onto the other side, pour half the egg into the hole in each slice of the bread, cook until the bread is brown on the underneath side.
Early in February 1941 a standard wholemeal loaf, called the National Loaf was introduced. Far more of the wheat was used in making it, so there was less waste.
Several schemes were tried to make up for the shortage of meat. Sausages contained less and less real pork or beef; ‘It’s a mystery what’s in these sausages,’ says a character in the 1943 film,
Millions like Us
, ‘and I hope it’s not solved in my time!’ By that year, horsemeat, or horse flesh as it was known, was commonly available, though rarely popular; also widely hated was whalemeat, which became available in 1945. On the other hand the war introduced the British public to the American creation, Spam, tins of which were a great treat. Rabbit was popular, especially in the countryside. Although fish was widely used as an alternative to meat, sometimes it was also scarce. New types of fish were tried out with little success, the most famous of which was Snoek (pronounced snook), an Australian fish, widely considered to be inedible.
People were encouraged to keep animals for food, and not just in the country. Sylvie Stevenson from Chingford in London:
We had real eggs! We kept chickens, ducks, rabbits, and a goose, we kept them in the garage and in two sheds in the garden. We kept the rabbits for meat – there was one big rabbit called ‘Blackie’; his cage was by the door and I used to see him a lot – when they cooked him I just couldn’t eat my dinner – Mum was so cross. Dad bought the goose in about August, we were going to fatten it up for Christmas. He thought it was a male bird but it started laying eggs so we kept it, the eggs were lovely – they filled the whole frying pan! We had it for about two years until it stopped laying, so Dad killed it – I couldn’t eat that either. The ducks were a disaster, there must have been half a dozen of them, Dad didn’t clip their wings properly and they flew over the fence into next door’s garden, the French windows were open and they went in – the neighbours were furious!
Communal feeding centres were set up. Their purpose was to serve low-cost, healthy meals, which used non-rationed food. Early in 1941 they were rechristened ‘British Restaurants’, and eventually there were over 1,000 of them set up around the country.
All these recipes are taken from some of the many recipe books and leaflets printed at the time. Like many of the recipes of the period, they reflect the ingredients then available, or more accurately unavailable. While it can be fun to make and sample the food – some of them are quite good – I have to say that some of the recipes in this book taste quite appalling, and are here for historic rather than gastronomic reasons!
Woolton Pie
The ingredients of this pie can be varied according to the vegetables in season. Potato, swede, cauliflower and carrot make a good mixture. Take 1 pound of them, diced, three or four spring onions, if possible, 1 teaspoonful vegetable extract and 1 tablespoonful oatmeal. Cook together for 10 minutes with just enough water to cover, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool, put in a pie dish, sprinkle with chopped parsley and cover with a crust of potato or wheatmeal pastry.
Eggless, Fatless, Walnut Cake
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 teaspoons baking powder 1 good cup milk
1 good pinch salt
Mix flour, sugar and chopped walnuts together. Add salt and baking powder, then the milk. It should be slightly wetter than an ordinary cake mixture. Leave to rise for 10 minutes. Bake in a greased tin in a slow oven until risen and brown.
Treacle Toffee Carrots
½ pound sugar
½ pound treacle
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 ounces margarine bundle of fresh carrots
Melt the margarine in a strong saucepan and add the other ingredients (except the carrots). Bring to the boil, and boil steadily until a little dropped into cold water immediately becomes brittle.
Wash and scrape the carrots, and see that they are all well shaped. Dry them thoroughly, dip into the toffee as soon as it reaches the brittle stage. Pour the rest of the toffee into a greased tin to set firm.
On 7 December 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, and on 11 December Germany and Italy also declared war on the USA. Throughout 1942, US troops began to set up bases in Britain. They brought with them forgotten luxuries – ice cream, sweets, gum, and other shortage goods – and were followed everywhere by swarms of children on the off-chance that they might give some away. Derek Dimond was evacuated to Stanstead and remembers the US airmen:
Later in the war the Americans came and built an airfield. We used to watch the Marauders flying out: count them out and count them back, then work out how many hadn’t returned. Sometimes they would come back damaged, on one wheel and so on, and crash on landing, if you were lucky there were flames – we were only children and thought that was very exciting, all the fire engines. I remember a Canadian plane crashing onto some pigs in a field and blowing up, we all collected up all the bits of aircraft for our shrapnel collections.
One popular saying that the kids used at the time was ‘Got any gum, chum?’ – the Americans used to have strip chewing gum and red apples, which you could only get from the United States. They used to go back home from Stanstead station and as they left they would throw them, and money, to us from the train.
Having plenty of everything – ‘Over-sexed, over-paid and over here’ was one popular description of US servicemen – meant that they were extremely popular with children and young women, but loathed by everyone else, especially the British servicemen. This ill-feeling was taken so seriously by the government that a number of films were produced which showed British and US troops working together to beat the common enemy. Examples included Powell and Pressburger’s
A Canterbury Tale
and Rattigan’s
The Way to the Stars
, each of which also shows a sympathetic relationship growing between US airmen and British children.
The numbers of US troops, or GIs as they were called, built up as plans were laid for the Allied invasion of France (D-Day) in June 1944. June Fidler from Peckham:
I remember just before D-Day, all these huge American lorries were parked all along both sides of the road by Andover station, waiting for the US soldiers to come out of the station to take them to Portsmouth. We went and stood by the lorries talking to the troops. They gave us sweets and gum, it was my first taste of chewing gum. I also spoke to my first black man then, he was the driver. I went home and told my Nan; she said; ‘They’re not black, they’re coloured.’ That was the polite word in those days.
Not all the children were so friendly; Christine Pilgrim of Peckham recalls: ’We had a big American base near us, I remember seeing the GIs in their smart uniforms, some of the boys used to talk to them but we girls were very strictly warned off doing so, they were, after all, strangers.’