Eat for Victory! An Introduction to Rationing in WWII

Why did we need to ration?

Simply put rationing is a system of limiting the amount of something that a person is allowed to have. During the First World War there were shortages of many food items and Britain was afraid that the population would starve. Prior to the Second World War Britain imported a massive proportion of the food consumed. During the 1930s Britain imported a massive 55 million tons of food per month, this would drop down to around 12 million tons per month during the Second World War.

With the unrest in Germany during the late 1930s the government could see that war was imminent and they started to prepare. They decided that in order to make sure people didn’t starve that, once war broke out, they would put in place limits on certain types of food to make sure that there was enough for everybody. Rationing was not started until early 1940, however the government has already planned rationing and printed ration books for the population as early as 1938 (the year before the war even started).

How did rationing work?

Every single person was issued with a ration book, no matter what their age. Usually the woman of the family would look after the books and collect the rations for the entire family, as she would be the person planning the meals and cooking the food. Although every person would get their own ration book, people in different groups were entitled to different amounts of items so different colour ration books were made for the different groups. Adults had a tan brown book, children were given a blue book and under 5s had a green book.

Once a person had a ration book then they needed to register with a local shop, this would be the only place that they could go to get their ration of that item as the shop would be sent only enough rationed produce for the number of people registered with them. When the housewife went to buy the items on ration then she needed to take the ration books with her.

The shopkeeper would weigh out the exact amount allocated and would cut the corresponding week token out of the ration book (later some shopkeepers simply scribbled through the correct token in the book). People still needed to pay for the food as well as having the correct tokens in their ration book.

Reproduction Ration Books

What was a weekly ration?

Every person with a ration book was entitled to a weekly ration consisting of certain types of food.

Below shows the typical amount of ration that an adult was entitled to during the Second World War.

Bacon/Ham	4oz
Other Meat	1 shilling 2d (approx. 2 chops/450g meat)
Butter	2oz
Margarine	4oz
Lard	4oz
Cheese	2oz
Milk	3 pints
Sugar	8oz
Jam	1lb every 2 months
Tea	2oz
Fresh Eggs	1
Dried Egg	1 pack every 4 weeks
Sweets	12oz every 4 weeks

The amounts allocated were different for people with different colour ration books. Children under 5 were entitled to a pint of milk every single day.

What’s the point?

As well as the weekly ration people were given a number of ration points that they could spend on whichever items they liked. Points rationing was introduced in December 1941, initially every person was allocated 16 points per month, this later rose to 24 points per person and then dropped down to 20 points per person on 27th May 1945.

The amount of points that an item cost would change every week depending on the availability of the item. A list of the point prices for the following week would be printed in the newspaper so people could see if something that they needed or wanted had reduced.

Some food items included on points rationing included tinned fish, biscuits, currants, pudding rice, macaroni and baked beans.

Was everything rationed?

Fresh fruit and vegetables were not rationed at all. However most of the time only fruit and vegetables grown in Britain were available. This meant that they were only available seasonally and so not everything was available all year round.

In 1940 the import of bananas was banned as the ships used to transport them were needed for the war effort.

There was a huge ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign across the country to encourage people to grow their own food. People grew vegetables in their flower beds and gardens. Many open spaces were also used to grow fruit and vegetables, such as public parks, tennis courts and even the green spaces inside the Tower of London.

Bread was also not rationed at all during the second world war. White bread was banned and only wholemeal flours were available. Bakers were instructed to make and sell a particular type of bread which had added calcium and vitamins, this became known as the national loaf. The year after the war ended, in 1946, there was a poor harvest which led to bread being added on to the ration list.

Rationing continued on certain food items until July 1954, nine years after the end of the war.

The National Loaf