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There were a lot of shortages of essential foodstuffs, not just luxuries. Ration books were issued to each person over five years old containing tokens which could be saved up or used at the owner’s discretion. The shopkeeper would remove the tokens before he issued the goods. There were different coloured ration books. The buff coloured books were issued to adults and school-age children. Green books were issued to expectant mothers, as they had extra needs. The tokens had no monetary value, but they were a means of ensuring that everybody got their fair share of what was available. The tokens were for food, and later for clothing. It was on 8 January 1940 that Food Rationing was introduced.

At the beginning, the following amounts were available for each person per week:

Butter or lard: 4ozs [113.4 grams]
Sugar: 12ozs [340.2 grams]
Raw bacon or ham: 4ozs [113.4 grams]
Eggs: 2
Cooked bacon or ham: 3.5ozs [99.3 grams]

Meat rationing started on 11th March 1940. As the war continued, bread became in short supply. Queues would form outside shops very early in the morning because even if people had coupons, the shops did not always have enough bread for everyone. Rumours would start that a shop was getting a supply of butter or meat and immediately a queue would form outside the shop. Many a shop opened for only two or three days a week because of food shortages. Clothing coupons became necessary, although they affected women more than men. Women were not able to get silk stockings. They started to put tea or a thin mixture of gravy colouring on their legs and a pencil line down the back to make it look as if they were wearing stockings. Patches were sewn on the elbows to make jumpers, cardigans, and jackets last longer.
Special clothing such as bridal gowns and bridesmaids’ dresses were used many times by different family members to save precious clothing coupons. Rationing did not end with the war. It was years before life got back to normal. Some things like sweets were rationed up to 1953. Looking back on those days, it was a time of fear and insecurity, as our daily routine was disrupted. We did not get much sleep because of the air-raids and the threat of air-raids. However, we still had to go to school and work as usual no matter what happened during the night.

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