Anyone Here Old Enough to Remember War-Time Britain?

[TexasBobH]

Howdy All !

Going through old papers and doing a good clean out, I ran across a US ration book that was issued in my name during World War II. My 24-yo daughter can't fathom rationing (among too many other things). I was trying to impress upon her the deprivations suffered by so many in Europe during that horrific period.

This conversation - and seeing an episode of Foyle's War on PBS last evening wherein a black market turkey was a storyline bit - led to my trying to recall when rationing was lifted in the UK. My 65-yo memory (and removal by the great Atlantic pond from proximity to those conditions) are insufficient to do so. It seems that I recall reading as a child that the UK was rationing gasoline (petrol) and many foodstuffs into the 1950s.

Remembering this website, I thought I'd post to see if anyone would care to share there recollections of the physical and economic hardships of that era.

Best regards,

Bob Hutchins
Texas, USA

 

[DomValente]

Welcome to the forum Bob.

I think meat was the last thing to be de-rationed in about 53-54. seem to recall that there weren't many sweeties(candy) about in the very early fifties or maybe mum and dad were just being mean .

Dom

 

[Scrit]

Hi Bob and welcome

I'm not really old enough top remember rationing, but I do recall finding a rationing card in my name as a child. Dom is quite right - food rationing ended in 1954 (oops, showing may age here ). Interestingly enough petrol rationing was re-introduced during the Suez Crises in 1957 and I think I still have my petrol rationing book issued in the early 1970s as a contingency in the aftermath of the 1973 Middle East War, but never actually used.

Scrit

 

[Paul Chapman]

I can remember petrol rationing during the Suez crisis. Mind you, not many "ordinary" people could afford a car back in those days. If you could, you obviously had money and everyone tried to get their daughter married off to you

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[jaymar]

I remember rationing. Lots of trading went on as some people used a lot of sugar say while some wanted tea or some other commodity. As a child I did not know any other lifestyle so I never really felt deprived. I remember that a friend of my mother ran a sweet shop so we were well off for sweeties. I also had relatives working at Roundtrees chocolate factory in York so we did get some "Wastage". I understand we were healthier for having a restricted diet, we certainly were much more active. We had much more freedom than modern kids, we were out from early morning to dusk (breaks for meals excepted)

 

[devonwoody]

I recall that labouring workers got a higher allowance of coupons.

 

[White House Workshop]

I remember sugar and sweet rationing very well. My mother ran a B&B for a while to supplement household income and some of the regulars were the Robertsons jam lorry drivers. We always had jam and marmalade on the table and I was the only kid on the street to have a complete set of the enamelled golliwogs. Wish I still had them today - probably worth a small fortune

We also lived in Grimsby and our neighbour was a 'lumper' on the docks (unloaded the boats for those that don't know). I grew up with a taste for fresh (and free) wild salmon straight off the boats :lol:

 

[lurker]

Bob,

Hope this doesn't sound too unfriendly, I just bring it to your attention for your enlightenment

The main reason rationing continued in the UK for so long after the war was that we were paying off crippling "war loans" to USA. In actual fact only last year did we make the final payment.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Does anyone remember those horrible grey school shirts that were around in the 1950s? They had that utility mark on the label, C44 or something like that. They used to itch, just like when you had been to the barber and got hair down the back of your neck. Horrible

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[andrewm]

Bob,

Hope this doesn't sound too unfriendly, I just bring it to your attention for your enlightenment

The main reason rationing continued in the UK for so long after the war was that we were paying off crippling "war loans" to USA. In actual fact only last year did we make the final payment.

Although if you want to be pedantic about it what we paid off at the end of last year was a 'post-war' loan and the reason that we didn't pay it off sooner was less to do with it being crippling and more to do with the very good interest rate that we were paying. More info here.

So if anyone one want to offer me a 2% rate on my mortgage I'll happily take 50 years to repay it

Andrew

 

[lurker]

Andrew,

I stand corrected.

None the less, it seems that tiny UK had to pay to see off the nazis whilst everyone else was raking it in. Don't anyone think I'm refering to the lives lost -just from the money angle.

By the way, I sit at my office desk, above my head is what was Frank Whittle's office. We "had" to hand over any future claims of commercial royalties for his jet engine designs to to our USA "friends" to keep them sweet before the finally decided that Mr Hilter might be a bad thing after all.

 

[Chris Knight]

Careful guys - choppy waters.

 

[andrewm]

We "had" to hand over any future claims of commercial royalties for his jet engine designs to to our USA "friends" to keep them sweet before the finally decided that Mr Hilter might be a bad thing after all.

Any idea when this was patented. Given that jets didn't really take off (groan) until perhaps the 70's I suspect that the most lucrative times were after the patent expired.

Andrew

 

[TexasBobH]

Thank you for the warm welcome and great responses!

My apologies for offending anyone with the post. It was not my intent to offend, nor was it my intent to raise political issues. I'm sorry if anyone was offended and appreciate the information about loan repayments.

I greatly admire the British and Irish people - tracing my ancestry to those Blessed Isles and to Holland. The behavio(u)r of the vast majority of the populace of the UK during the '40s and '50s was remarkable. I look forward to the next opportunity that allows me to visit.

Please continue to post your recollections sans politics, please, unless you would like to strike up a private correspondence to discuss viewpoints.

Bob

 

[Smudger]

To get back to the original post - I was born 1949, so I don't remember the war, but I remember rationing.

In 1953 there was still meat rationing and at Easter my father won a rabbit (this was pre-myxomatosis) in the British Legion raffle. He brought it home to fatten it up, made a little run for it, and we fed it veggie scraps, called it Thumper.

You can work out the rest - rabbit killed and cooked, no-one ate any...

 

[Paul Chapman]

My Mum's youngest sister spent the war years working on a farm in Smarden, Kent as part of the land army. The people who owned the farm used to let some of the soldiers who were stationed nearby, call in for baths, one of whom was my Mum's brother. When I was born, in March 1945, Dick and Ivy who owned the farm became my God Parents and I remember spending many happy times as a child visiting the farm. Not only was it good fun playing with all the animals, but you could get really nice things to eat, like strawberries and cream

Every Christmas, Ivy used to send us a turkey which was plucked but still had all the innards. My poor Dad used to have to remove all these. I can still hear him now, as he finished, saying "God, I need a ***".

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Smudger]

My father reckoned he was a bit of a country boy and always kept chickens, mostly for the eggs. We often went into his shed to find a headless chicken bleeding into a bucket.

I well remember my mother and grandmother sitting plucking and drawing chickens. I especially remember my mother getting all the unformed eggs out - just like naked yolks - and using them to enrich cakes.

Different times, but I still see older people in France taking home their poule au pot still struggling!

 

[Harbo]

I was born at the end of the war (in Leeds) and although I remember the ration books and coupons I do not think as a child I noticed we were missing out on things - the previous generations did however as they were really caught up in the war. Husbands etc. absent and the bombing raids.
My main memories are of the long gone corner shops where things were asked for and weighed out and playing in the bombed-out factories, buildings and houses. I remember getting an Orange in my Christmas sack (sock!) - which must have been a special treat? My father made me an igloo in the great winter storm of 1947 and people searching the slag heaps for coal to keep warm.
We seemed to have a lot more freedom then and used to roam about (on foot) for miles - not something you would let your children do now?
Happy days?
It was not until I had seen Andrew Marr's recent TV Series on the History of Modern Britain did I realise how bad things were and for how long.

Rod

 

[devonwoody]

Poor old Smudger, Yes we have no bananas today.
Can't remember when they came back on the shelves.

 

[lurker]

Bob,

Sorry!! For some reason I'm very touchy about what I see as a "one sided" special relationship.

And welcome to the forum!