Women and children queue to buy vegetables, London, 1945.
Museum Crush
By mid-1942 most foodstuffs in Britain were rationed, except for some vegetables, fruit, fish and bread. A typical weekly ration allowed a person 1 egg, 2 ounces each of tea and butter, an ounce of cheese, eight ounces of sugar, four ounces of bacon and four ounces of margarine. Other scarce commodities were rationed too eg clothing, shoes, fuel, and soap. As the war progressed, the rationing system had to be refined to accommodate different needs.
Britain’s truly drastic rationing regulations were not needed in Australia because we had bigger farm areas, a smaller population and our own large and well developed rural industries. Nonetheless Australia's use of food ration coupons was applied to tea, sugar, butter, meat and clothes. Eggs and milk were also rationed, as needed. Rationing regulations in Australia were introduced in mid-1942 to manage shortages, control civilian consumption and curb inflation by reducing consumer spending. Hopefully this would lead to 1] a higher level of savings by the population, 2] a greater investment in government war loans and 3] a fairer distribution of food and clothing. Many thanks to the War Memorial in Canberra.
Waiting patiently for meat rations,
Sydney Morning Herald, 1944
Australian troops abroad had to be supplied with food produced in Australia, and when thousands of American troops arrived in Australia to fight the war in the Pacific, they too had to be fed.
Rationing was planned by the nation's Rationing Commission in the Minister for War Organisation of Industry. From 1942, as the range of rationed commodities grew, not every Australian citizen supported rationing legislation; some citizens were prepared to exploit and profit by selling scarce commodities at inflated prices. This created a Black Market where commodities could be acquired without coupons, but at high prices. So rationing was closely policed and breaches were punished under the National Security Regulations - £100 fines or up to 6 months gaol were imposed. When these penalties were inadequate, the government passed the Black Marketing Act in late 1942, for more serious cases.
Australia shops changed from a cash-economy to a coupon-economy. Each adult citizen received a ration book with 112 coupons. All purchasable items had a coupon value eg a man’s suit cost 38 coupons, socks 4. Used coupon books were exchanged for new ones only annually, so people had to plan their expenses to avoid using all their coupons too quickly. Civilian clothing was running out, so cheap austerity garments replaced the old stocks, made from materials not vital to the war effort.
Rationing was based on supply. In some towns the impact was less when suburban blocks were big enough for families to grow their own vegetables/fruit. And some could support chickens or cows, supplying themselves with eggs and dairy products. Some public parks were dug up for vegetable gardens! The government feared that rationing would result in poorer health on the home front, but rationing actually reduced food-related problems eg obesity, diabetes.
Fish, sausages, chicken, ham and rabbits were hardly rationed. Recipes designed to cater for the lack of eggs, butter and meat regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines. Animal organs were more readily available than better cuts of meat in WW2 and formed a significant part of people's diets. Even so, people had to stand in long queues
The Austerity Campaign wanted simple living; citizens were told to smoke less; drink less; plan meals for food value and give up cosmetics. Children’s toys had to be hand-made.
When WW2 began, Australia had been totally unready for a long conflict; there were enough petrol reserves for only 3 months, and limited storage capacity. The Commonwealth asked the Dept of Supply to prepare plans to ration petrol but it was not imposed immediately; instead they only recommended frugality. As an alternative, the government encouraged motorists to use charcoal gas producers, fitted to the back of cars. However, gas producers were in short supply, cumbersome, messy and inefficient.
The motor industry lobbied against petrol rationing, claiming it would lead to unemployment and economic instability. But as a last resort, Director of Economic Planning had to introduce a scheme to conserve petrol. Divided into classes, eg delivery vans, buses, taxis, trucks, industrial transport, farm machinery and private cars, priorities were determined for each class and allowances were allocated.
Even after WW2 ended, Australia still needed to send meat supplies to Britain
Australian troops abroad had to be supplied with food produced in Australia, and when thousands of American troops arrived in Australia to fight the war in the Pacific, they too had to be fed.
Rationing was planned by the nation's Rationing Commission in the Minister for War Organisation of Industry. From 1942, as the range of rationed commodities grew, not every Australian citizen supported rationing legislation; some citizens were prepared to exploit and profit by selling scarce commodities at inflated prices. This created a Black Market where commodities could be acquired without coupons, but at high prices. So rationing was closely policed and breaches were punished under the National Security Regulations - £100 fines or up to 6 months gaol were imposed. When these penalties were inadequate, the government passed the Black Marketing Act in late 1942, for more serious cases.
Australia shops changed from a cash-economy to a coupon-economy. Each adult citizen received a ration book with 112 coupons. All purchasable items had a coupon value eg a man’s suit cost 38 coupons, socks 4. Used coupon books were exchanged for new ones only annually, so people had to plan their expenses to avoid using all their coupons too quickly. Civilian clothing was running out, so cheap austerity garments replaced the old stocks, made from materials not vital to the war effort.
Australian rationing coupons and cards
Gizmodo
Rationing was based on supply. In some towns the impact was less when suburban blocks were big enough for families to grow their own vegetables/fruit. And some could support chickens or cows, supplying themselves with eggs and dairy products. Some public parks were dug up for vegetable gardens! The government feared that rationing would result in poorer health on the home front, but rationing actually reduced food-related problems eg obesity, diabetes.
Fish, sausages, chicken, ham and rabbits were hardly rationed. Recipes designed to cater for the lack of eggs, butter and meat regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines. Animal organs were more readily available than better cuts of meat in WW2 and formed a significant part of people's diets. Even so, people had to stand in long queues
The Austerity Campaign wanted simple living; citizens were told to smoke less; drink less; plan meals for food value and give up cosmetics. Children’s toys had to be hand-made.
When WW2 began, Australia had been totally unready for a long conflict; there were enough petrol reserves for only 3 months, and limited storage capacity. The Commonwealth asked the Dept of Supply to prepare plans to ration petrol but it was not imposed immediately; instead they only recommended frugality. As an alternative, the government encouraged motorists to use charcoal gas producers, fitted to the back of cars. However, gas producers were in short supply, cumbersome, messy and inefficient.
The motor industry lobbied against petrol rationing, claiming it would lead to unemployment and economic instability. But as a last resort, Director of Economic Planning had to introduce a scheme to conserve petrol. Divided into classes, eg delivery vans, buses, taxis, trucks, industrial transport, farm machinery and private cars, priorities were determined for each class and allowances were allocated.
Australians were encouraged to grow their own fruit, vegetables and eggs
Australian War Memorial
To obtain ration tickets from late 1940, the million+ civilians applying for petrol licences had to complete an application each time which lasted 6 months. After that, issues were made every 2 months, to avoid forgeries and black market hoarding. Petrol companies pooled their supplies, and storage facilities grew up everywhere, for all vehicles.
Victory over Japan in 1945 raised expectations that rationing would be abolished. But rationing was only gradually phased out, given that Australia continued to send food etc to Britain for years. The meat ration had been further reduced in the motherland, and in an effort to support the British public, the Australian Government maintained meat rationing and price controls until 1948.
To obtain ration tickets from late 1940, the million+ civilians applying for petrol licences had to complete an application each time which lasted 6 months. After that, issues were made every 2 months, to avoid forgeries and black market hoarding. Petrol companies pooled their supplies, and storage facilities grew up everywhere, for all vehicles.
Victory over Japan in 1945 raised expectations that rationing would be abolished. But rationing was only gradually phased out, given that Australia continued to send food etc to Britain for years. The meat ration had been further reduced in the motherland, and in an effort to support the British public, the Australian Government maintained meat rationing and price controls until 1948.
Five years after the war ended, Australian food rationing finally ended. While sugar and meat had already become freely available, butter and tea were STILL rationed until June 1950. NB in Britain rationing didn’t end until July 1954!
Digger History
29 comments:
I cannot possibly imagine the life relying on food rationing. That amount of food is literally causing famine.
It must have been so hard back then dealing with shortages and rationing, I asked my mum was she remembered of those days and she said that thankfully living in a small country town they were not greatly effected by such things, they had chickens, a veggie garden some fruit trees scattered around she had a uncle with cows so they got fresh milk and made their own butter. They didn't have to worry abut petrol they didn't have a car and walked everywhere.
I remember my mom and my grandmother telling me about rationing in the US during the war. And my dad was one of those American soldiers who passed through Australia. He didn't end up staying long, but I think going south of the continent was a way to avoid the Japanese in the Pacific. Or to try to at least. Thanks for the article, and hope you have a great weekend.
Did the upper classes in Britain get treated differently or did they share the same rationing as the workers?
Interesting reminder of some of what my late father told me. He was a young boy but remembered, he wasn't effect much as he lived on a farm in those days.
Make me wonder how the young ones would take it all today..there would be an up cry!
I need to ration my own food supply, I eat far too much.
I'm glad I wasn't yet born when all this rationing was going on, although having been born in Germany, perhaps rationing WAS still happening there. Perhaps that's why mum grew veggies everywhere we lived.
My father remembered rationing and not in a favourable light. It ended when he was 9 but frugal living in the north of England continued on. Did they get the high number of counterfeit products and sawdust in black market goods in Australia that they had in UK?
Hello Hels, I was intrigued when you mentioned charcoal gas producers for vehicles, so I looked it up and found this picture on the Australian War Memorial site.
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1002279?image=1
If you do a general search on charcoal gas producers, you can see them mounted on vehicles and even tractors--they are quite large.
.
My mother remembers having a Victory garden, and says that everyone had one. Another benefit of rationing was that it united people in a common bond to support the soldiers and the war efforts. Imagine all of the picky eaters of today being subjected to food rationing.
--Jim
roentare
I also think the same whenever we see current images from South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Chad, Mali etc. "Starvation and disease only influence third world countries", we say to ourselves, "and would never impact on European societies". How wrong that was, even in our own parents' and grandparents' generations. And could happen again.
Very interesting article. I didn't know that Australia had rationing. All in all, it was not a bad thing in UK- no-one starved and people had to think hard and be imaginative in their food preparation. Anyone who had a garden would grow vegetables and country folk supplemented their rations with chickens and perhaps a pig.
Erika
if there was enough food in the country, priority was always given to Australian military men and Allies from other countries, and to pregnant mothers. Your father, and mine, were thanked for their contribution to that horrible, endless war effort.
Deb
British shopkeepers were supplied with sufficient food for every family registered with them. As in Australia, British ration books worked on a coupon system, so people could only purchase their entitlement and no more. Not even wealthy families.
But I know that rationing helped a black market to prosper; clever criminals offered those who could afford additional foods that were difficult to locate in the rationing system. This black market was a very profitable industry, and wealthy families might have been very happy to pay the crims.
Margaret
your dad was very fortunate growing up on a farm. Even his own father may not have been conscripted since our agricultural supply was vital to Australia of course, and to Britain's war effort as well. And local farmers could also rely of the work of Women's Land Army members, thankfully.
River
The German experience will sound quite like Australia's and UK's. Basic foodstuffs in Germany such as sugar, meat, fats, bacon and cheese were directly rationed by an allowance of coupons. Housewives had to register with particular retailers. The regular German Army soldiers received high calorie-protein rations.
In 1950, all German rations ended, except for sugar.
Mandy
I wonder what proof there is for the following.
Shortages and rationing led to hoarding: people who had access to some rare commodity eg petrol would store up as much as they could. This only made shortages worse. It also led to a black market: items that were in demand were sold privately, at very high prices, outside the rationing system. The black market facilitated resistance and survival, but it also provided opportunities for people to enrich themselves illegally, at the expense of others in need.
Parnassus
I had forgotten about victory gardens. The British Dig for Victory campaign was launched in 1940 to combat food shortages by promoting the planting of allotments in gardens and on public land. The aim was to make Britain as self-sufficient in food as possible.
In January 1942 the Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, launched Dig for Victory, a publicity campaign urging householders throughout Australia to grow their own vegetables as a contribution to the war effort. The press loved and promoted the idea, as did industry and local community groups.
Faced with having to feed an expanded military by late 1942, the US government reintroduced the idea of War Gardens from WWI. They rebranded them as Victory Gardens for WW2, and were grown on farms, in backyards, on city rooftops, in window-boxes, on public lands, and in vacant lots. Thank you nps.gov
jabblog
when I was young, in the early 1950s, I knew nothing about war-time rationing either. But my grandmother started telling me about how her sister-in-law and 3 children didn't have enough food. My grandparents and their three children didn't have enough food either, but when SIL came crying to the front door, granny felt obliged to give them some of her scarce resources.
Granny was teaching me never to take precious food out of the mouths of children. Ever since then, I have always lived in a house that has a fruit and vegetable garden in the back yard!
I don't know about other places, but in my neck of the woods I'm expecting shortage and rationing quite soon. There's trouble at the Red Sea,with cargo ships being attacked, young people are mobilized at war, a lot depends on import and foreign workers which is never good for a healthy economy.
If that should happen,personal security would fall to pieces.
DUTA
I thought climate change was destroying agriculture all over the world, but you are correct - there are also cargo ships intentionally destroyed, millions of starving migrants living in tents, young people unemployed or conscripted, bushfires destroying swathes of wheat crops in Canada and Australia etc. It must feel like our parents felt in 1939 :(
Very interesting. My father remembers rationing in the UK and has talked of it over the years. I was brought up in a home where you ate what was on your plate. I wonder if that was a result of the rationing... or my parents just didn't like waste.
Handmade
Yes indeed. The horrors of the war generation never left them, and often had an impact on our generation too, as you noted. My late, Czech mother in law was still wrapping up stale bread in alfoil and hiding it in her Sydney flat in 1969, just in case they were starved again.
So the rationing was definitley over by the time I was born 1952, except for perhaps sugar still and might explain why my dad put sugar in almost everything we ate after getting to Australia.
Boa tarde de segunda-feira. Excelente aula de história. Parabéns pelo seu trabalho maravilhoso e pesquisa.
A very interesting article. I was born in England in 1942. I remember my mum and dad talking about the war and rationing. I still have one of the english ration books for me. Ratining was one of the reasons our family migrated to Australia in 1949. In her diary, my mother often mentions all the food that was available on the ship that brought us to Australia. When we landed in Fremantle we had the biggest fruit and ice cream Sundae and I remember how big and delicious it was. My mother always had a dislike of queuing because it reminded her of the queing for food In England. It was even hard for her to queue at Expo 88. I have written a book about our migration.
River
We seem to remember the great and the terrible events in our childhood, even if we are merely remembering what was significant to our parents and grandparents. And even if some of those original memories were exaggerated.
I remember every one of my grandfather's experiences in the Russian Revolution, as if I had been there.
Luiz
Normally historians have to rely on very old documents, primary sources whenever possible. Fortunately history from 1939 onwards is much more likely to come from our elderly parents, family members, teachers, elderly neighbours and tv documentaries.
After that information, I checked with newspaper articles back then and history texts :)
diane
rationing must have been such a terrible experience for ordinary citizens (that is, not prisoners nor concentration camp inmates).. it was remembered by those who suffered, even decades later. I am not surprised your family decided to emigrate to Australia in 1949, even though we still had rationing here.
The top photo shows something of the very long and very slow queue that mothers had to stand in. It was horrible, especially in winter.
It's interesting what you say about resistance and survival. I wonder what the balance was between greed (and victimising vulnerable people) and providing a needed service
Mandy
Most people who suffered from rationing themselves were very sympathetic to other struggling families, even helping out with soup kitchens etc. But nasty people soon saw their chance to make money out of the horrible situation, and black markets appeared for meat and petrol in particular.
Read Black Market Britain: 1939-1955 by Mark Roodhouse or a review of the book at:
https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1563
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