Ration books were first issued in October 1939, although rationing did not actually begin until 8th January 1940. It was meant to start in October 1939, but the Daily Express began a “Stop Rationing” campaign, which meant that it was postponed for several weeks. Here, we see women preparing the ration books for the people of Leeds.
Some typical weekly rations for one person were: 4oz bacon per week, 2-4oz tea, 1-8oz cheese, 8oz sugar.
An advertising campaign in 1943 had this memorable little ditty:
Someone's going to be sorry
Someone's going to pay
Someone's going to be sorry
They wasted my life away.
This was accompanied by a picture of a tablet of soap dissolving down the sink because it had been left in water!
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