Food, glorious food . . .

Great Britain depended heavily on cheap food imports and the outbreak of war soon led to shortages and the hoarding of food by those who could afford to do so.

Rationing was needed to ensure the fair distribution of essential supplies and ration books were distributed, one to each person in every household.

The shopper — usually, it was assumed, a housewife — had to register with one or more shops for the supply of rationed food, and the Government guaranteed to provide each shop with sufficient rations to cater for registered customers.

Initially, only bacon or ham, sugar and butter were rationed but meat, excluding offal, was added in 1940. Tea and cooking fat or margarine went on the ration in July. Preserves such as jam, marmalade and syrup were added to the list in March, 1941, and cheese in May. The weekly allowance varied during the war but it was always miserly by today’s standards — for example, 4oz of bacon or ham per head, 2oz of tea, 12oz of sugar and one or 2oz of cheese.

People grumbled of course, but the Faringdon Advertiser argued in January, 1940 that ‘it is up to everyone to make the best of it.’ There were queues everywhere and, while waiting at her butcher’s in Oxford, Phyl Surman would compare the number of people in front of her with the portions of offal on display, to see whether this was to be her lucky day.

Keeping on good terms with your registered shopkeeper was essential and when Amelia Trueta went shopping, she put on “her ‘butcher’s eyes’ — that is, she would try to look hungry and miserable in the hope that he would add a few ounces more to the ration.”

Many unrationed foods were in short supply and some virtually disappeared ‘for the duration’.

Fish was always scarce. S B Mais recalls standing “in endless queues in the cold, draughty Covered Market for fish which was sold out before we reached the slab.”

Eggs became a rarity, in towns at least, and most adults were lucky to get one a fortnight. Onions could no longer be imported from occupied France and foreign fruit was generally unobtainable. Oranges were so prized that the Queen was given one as a present when she visited the Churchill Hospital in 1944.

The Ministry of Food, headed for much of the war by the energetic Lord Woolton, introduced a points system to improve the supply of unrationed foods in December, 1941. Each ration book holder got 16, later 20, points a month to spend at any shop on items covered by the scheme. Initially, this meant canned meat, fish and vegetables but tinned fruit, breakfast cereals and condensed milk were among the items added within a year.

Shoppers relished the freedom to shop around and hunted for ‘points bargains’ as the points value of particular commodities fluctuated.

Lord Woolton was personally associated with ‘The Kitchen Front’ publicity campaign which stressed the vital role of the housewife in the war effort. The BBC broadcast cheerful daily talks about Wise Eating in Wartime by the Radio Doctor, Dr Charles Hill. The Ministry of Food issued recipe leaflets and used comic characters like Potato Pete and Dr Carrot to urge a greater use of vegetables that were readily available. Dried milk and dried eggs were crucial ingredients in recipes and spam became a popular import from the United States.

Communal eating facilities were provided to improve the nation’s diet and minimise the waste of food. Government-aided British Restaurants were opened in many places and, in January 1943, Banbury’s was offering hot lunches for 1/3d in premises decorated throughout in ‘bright sunshine yellow, with woodwork in green’.

Municipal Restaurants were the Oxford equivalent from January 1941, some in converted premises including the Town Hall and others in purpose-built prefabricated concrete buildings.

In 1941, Oxfordshire pioneered the Meat Pie Scheme, later adopted nationally, through which locally-baked pies were distributed by Women’s Voluntary Service representatives to agricultural workers. The scheme was a huge success initially, but enthusiasm for the pies in Burford gradually fell off, probably due to lack of variety.

School dinners were rare before the war but the government now subsidized them ‘to meet the nutritional requirements of the rising generation’. By June 1942, 70 Oxfordshire schools had canteens and 4,200 children were having a hot dinner every day — within two years, children’s health had noticeably improved.

Rationing ensured that everyone had just enough to eat, a remarkable feat in itself, but vital foods such as fresh milk, eggs and fruit were largely absent from the nation’s diet. American medical staff in 1944 noted the pallid appearance of local people working at the Churchill Hospital.

A varied diet became possible again when the war ended, but rationing of some basic items continued until 1954.