Catalogue Number
NMLH.1993.1.5
Object Name
Book
Title
CLOTHING BOOK 1945-46 GENERAL CB 1/8 ...
Place
66 Park Drive & Winchmore Hill & LOndon & England & UK; other
People
Goodchild, Gertrude; other
Events
Worldl War II
Description
During World War II (1939-1945), it soon became difficult to import clothing from abroad. Also, the war effort needed much of the cloth for military uniforms and parachutes. So clothing ration books were introduced and issued to virtually every man and woman in Britain. Each person was allowed a maximum of 66 coupons per year. Like food rationing too, clothes rationing continued well beyond the end of the war. Many 'baby-boomers', those born in the late 1940s, will remember the food and clothing ration books and some rationed foodstuffs. The make-do-and-mend of existing clothes that was increasingly part of wartime culture was also to continue into the 1950s. Typical were sewing patches onto fraying jacket elbows and the darning of worn socks.
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