大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Maggie Smith from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of Alfred Ash and has been added to the site with his permission. Alfred Ash fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

My name is Alfred Ash I was born in 1911 and married in 1936, we had two children and lived on The Lickeys until 1980.

With other residents on the Lickeys we attended a thanksgiving service in Lickey Church in the morning but it was in the evening that the reality of events really sank in. As dusk fell we walked with many others up Monument Lane to the summit of Beacon Hill and there spread out before us from horizon to horizon were the lights of Birmingham and beyond - a really wonderful sight. Six long years of darkness had ended. One aspect of the war had not ended and that was rationing . A recently discovered diary which I kept during the war includes numerous references about rations so in this period of emphasis on a healthy diet perhaps a look at what we lived on and remained healthy on may be of some interest. My late wife and I brought up two children during the war perfectly healthy and still going strong today. Per person a week we had one pound of meat, 8 oz of cooking fats, 2 oz of butter, 8 oz of sugar, 2 oz of tea, 2 oz of jam, 4 oz of cheese, 4 oz of bacon and ham, 2 pints of milk for adults and 1 pint per day for children up to five years old and 2 or 3 eggs. That was the rations on the coupons. There was also rations on points for biscuits, cereals, tinned fruits, tinned meats, tinned milk and creams

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