In the wake of clothes rationing, women focused on elaborate makeup, inventive hairstyles and coupon-free accessories to counterbalance the limitations of their wardrobe. A wartime survey shows that the overwhelming majority of working women and 90 per cent of the unders used cosmetics regularly.
Cosmetics or toilet preparations were never rationed, but official production was cut by 75 per cent of prewar output to economise on labour and raw materials. According to the Board of Trade, which was in charge of controlling domestic consumer goods, the industry actually produced over half of prewar output in The possibility of prohibiting the industry entirely was discussed in Instead, the Board introduced increasingly tight regulation, and legislation governing the control of cosmetics was changed eight times in six years.
One example was the appearance of a product called Laddastop following the prohibition of nail varnish, which required scarce solvent-based substances, in Marketed to stop ladders in silk stockings, Laddastop was pink and sold in small bottles with a brush for application.
The predicament was resolved by a Ministry of Supply order which prohibited preparations containing the banned solvents in bottles less than half a pint in size. Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska is an associate professor of modern British history at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Ration Books. Rationing for the War Effort Ask anyone who remembers life on the Home Front during World War II about their strongest memories and chances are they will tell you about rationing.
Primary Source Gallery. In order to prevent serious shortages, as early as the British Ministry of Food had begun to make plans for the supply, control and distribution of foodstuffs. In addition to making stockpiles and preparing food control policies, by the summer of the Ministry had already printed 50 million ration books, ready to be used when necessary.
The first commodity to be rationed in late was petrol, followed in January by the first foodstuffs: bacon, ham, butter, and sugar. Other products soon followed, especially foods that were normally imported or came from scarce animal sources, such as meat, cheese, margarine, eggs, milk, tea, breakfast cereals, rice, and biscuits.
By mid most foodstuffs were rationed, except fresh vegetables, fruit, fish and bread. Other scarce commodities were rationed too, such as clothing, shoes, fuel, and soap. As the war progressed, the rationing system was refined to accommodate different needs.
In order to ensure the fairest allocation of food possible, the Ministry of Food created classifications according to age and profession. Workers doing heavy labour were entitled to larger rations than other adult workers; children received smaller rations but relatively higher proportions of fats and proteins, and nursing or expectant mothers were entitled to larger allotments of milk and other animal-source foodstuffs. Supplementary rations were also given to the sick and people doing work that was considered to be detrimental to their health.
Rationing involved a complex purchasing system. Similar to the situation in many German-occupied countries, each person received a personal ration card with a certain number of coupons — later supplemented by a points system — that could be used at shops where they were registered.
Officially, none of the rationed articles could be bought or sold without these coupons or points. Unofficially, many people also bought foods clandestinely and, in common with other countries, the black market thrived in wartime Britain. To support the rationing scheme, in the Ministry of Food also established canteens. Other canteens catered those in need of extra meals, such as factory and company workers, as well as schoolchildren.
The number of school meals increased from about , before the war to 1. These meals provided them with up to 1, calories a day, or half of their daily requirements. Although rationing meant a major change for the British people, generally speaking, the wartime food policies made sure that nobody fell short of basic nutritional requirements. The main exception to this was the German-occupied Channel Islands, which suffered a severe food crisis during final months of the war and occupation.
The end of the war in May did not mean an end to rationing. Shortages persisted and bread, which had been freely available during the war, was rationed for two years from July These booklets a quite interesting as they brought the typical home cook back to basics by talking the reader through cookery and food terms, measurements and preservation some of which we would take for granted today with all tinned and vacuum packed products readily available.
Along with this article I wanted to include a recipe leaflet for some insight into rationing. I looked through my collection to select one to include. By Stephen Wilson. Over the past few years I have collected a number of leaflets, pamphlets, and books produced by the Ministry of Food around and during World War 2. Freshly cooked, piping hot fish and chips, smothered in salt and soused with vinegar, wrapped in newspaper and eaten out-of-doors on a cold and wintry day — it simply cannot be beaten!
British food from the Romans to Sunday roast dinners, fish and chips and the great British curry!
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