Shortages Collection

Save Food Poster / Wwi
Poster depicting a British soldier encouraging those on the home front to save food in response to food shortages due to German U-boat targeting of British merchant ships

Apres la Guerre No. 3 - WWI postcard by George Ranstead
Humorous postcard drawn by amateur soldier artist of the Great War, George Ranstead, who, in a series of illustrations suggesting what life might be like at the end of the war

Observed of all observers by Alfred Leete
The Chauffeur of a coal-gas-driven car (to a gathering crowd): Wot are you anging around cre for? The Crowd: Please, Mister, we se waiting for the balloon to go up

Wartime cuisine - fish and chips
Wartime rashioning during the Second World War. A plate of steak and veg is a dream, but at least there is still fish and chips to keep the spirits up and the bellies full! Date: circa early 1940s

Some shorages and how they are dealt with 1918
Shortage of skins and hides in Scotland, using trousers for their bagpipes. Shortage of iron hoops for wine casks. Please note

Water shortage and supply: Londons water stores, 1921
Seriously depleted by drought: Londons water stores in 1921 for seven million people, spread over 558 square miles.The Thames estuary is viewed looking east, towards the sea

WWII - the man who eats grass, Mr J. R. B. Branson
Mr J. R. B. Branson, who advocated a diet of grass to counter food shortages during the Second World War. The Bystander magazine ran a double page spread on him

Advert statement, butter rationing, Crawford's Shortbread
Advertisement and statement on butter rationing from Crawford's Shortbread. Explaining that the best table butter must be kept for the family larder

How Housing Shortage is Being Met 1920
At the end of First World War One almost 80% of Britains rented homes from private landlords. David Lloyd George was concerned by the standards of the housing

Lord Beaverbrook's appeal for aluminium 1940
Lord Beaverbrook the Minister for Aircraft Production appealed for objects wholly or partly made of aluminium for the manufacture of aeroplanes

Lord Beaverbrook the Minister for Aircraft Production appealed for objects wholly or partly made of aluminium for the manufacture of aeroplanes

Rational Gadgets For Your Coupons by William Heath Robinson
Customers are put on scales to determine how much butter they are entitled to, the heavier the person is, the more butter they are given. Date: 1940

The Bystander - keeps pace with the times
What we may soon see if the present shortage of paper grows even more insistent. Date: 1917

Allotment studies by G. E. Studdy
No. I. - Back to the land and what it fills like! To tackle food shortages, people were given plots to grow their own vegetables, in this cartoon a man is in agonising back pain

Blackout, meal by candlelight, 1949
Once again the victims of an unofficial strike: the long-suffering public. Recalling the inconveniences of the long wartime blackout

London transport recruiting female bus conductors to replace men called up for national service. 1940

Food Queues in London owing to shortages
Food Queues in London owing to shortage of supplies. People waiting to get 2 ounces only Date: 1918

A Mound of Aluminium, July 1940
In response to the appeal for aluminium from Lord Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft Production, families hand in their spare pots and pans to aid the war effort. 1940

In the Stretching Sheds of an Ox-Tail Soup Factory. War-Time Economies from William Heath Robinson including an ingenious idea for making the ingredients for oxtail soup go further. Date: 1918

How to start an allotment during WW1
Diagram in The Sphere advising readers how to start work on a raw piece of ground in order to create an allotment. The Food Production Department was keen to get around 500

WE DAREN T WASTE IT by W. Heath Robinson
A variety of ingenious inventions and machines designed to help people cope and keep cool during an August heatwave. Please note

Robert Morrison, 1940
Robert Morrison, Labour MP for Tottenham, at a salvage depot amid a mass of waste-paper being put towards the war effort. Morrison was made Chairman of the inter-departmental committee on salvaging

Ann Todd gives in her appliances for the war effort
Actress Ann Todd photographed handing in her spare household appliances to the local W.V.S. office in Berkshire. In 1940, Lord Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft Production

Households Encouraged to Give Aluminium for the War Effort
Woman from the Womens Voluntary Services hangs up pans and kettles from the W.V.S. centre to encourage people to hand in aluminium items to aid the war effort

Wartime Hunting - a day with the suburban hounds (rationing)
Humorous drawing by H. H. Harris commenting on rationing in Britain in 1918 using the metaphor of hunting. Lord Rhondda, who served as Food Controller, is Master of the Hounds

Things We Vow We Will Do, When Peace Breaks out
Cartoon by George Studdy showing a gent purposefully indulging in wasteful behaviour, a welcome relief after years of food control, shortages and rationing. Date: 1918

WW1 - Comment on the food shortage
WW1 - To ensure food supply during shortages, National and local food control committees were established to ensure food distribution across the country

Gas bag omnibus in Edinburgh, WW1
An example of a coal gas powered vehicle in Edinburgh - in this case a bus which holds a voluminous rubber bag for the gas on its roof

Become a subscriber to The Tatler, WW1 advertisement
Advertisement in The Sphere encouraging readers to subscribe to its sister paper, The Tatler, to avoid missing out during wartime

A Scent Evanescent by Wilmot Lunt - petrol shortages, WW1
CHEMIST: " That, madame, is petrol - our dearest and rarest perfume." Cartoon in The Bystander commenting on the extortionate cost of petrol as it became increasingly scarce on the home

New Fashions for 1918 by William Heath Robinson, WW1
New Fashions for 1918 - designed to meet the shortage of tweeds. A series of revealing menswear outfits suggested by Heath Robinson during the First World War. Date: 1918

Romance - 1917 by Bruce Bairnsfather, WW1 cartoon
" Darling, every potato that I have is yours" (Engaged). Cartoon in The Bystander by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather showing a couple locked in an embrace having agreed to get engaged

Graphic front cover - Sir Arthur Yapp
Sir Arthur Yapp (1869-1936), Deputy President of the YMCA and Director of Food Economy during the First World War. Responsible for encouraging the nation towards frugal

Mr Asquiths Wolseley Landaulette with gas container, WW1
Ex-Prime Minister Herbert Asquiths Wolseley Landaulette motor car equipped with the Lyon-Spencer gas container on its roof

Typical menu at a communal kitchen, WW1
A blackboard showing a typical menu at a communal kitchen in 1918. Communal and National Kitchens were established to help combat food shortages during the First World War by catering in bulk

Rationing of Food, February 1918, WW1
Page from The Sphere reporting on the introduction of food rationing of meat and butter in London and Home Counties on 25 February 1918

Food Protest in Hyde Park, WW1
A crowd in Hyde Park, London, protesting about the high price of food and of profiteering during the First World War. Date: 1917

The first National Kitchen, WW1
The first National Kitchen in Britain, opened on 21 May 1917 by Queen Mary. The National Kitchens were opened during the First World War to provide one solution to food shortages

Coal-gas powered delivery van of the Illustrated London News
An example of coal-gas powered vehicles during the First World War, this example being the delivery van of the Illustrated London News and Sketch Ltd

Great Food Demonstration on Embankment, London, WW1
A procession organised by the National Union of Railwaymen who marched to Hyde Park in order to demonstrate against rising food prices during the First World War. Date: 1914-1918

Cartoon criticising dogs given luxury food in wartime, WW1
One of the horrors of war. " And did ums tink their mumsie would waste her money on the horrid war and rob her popsy-wopsies of their ickle nicy-picie" An illustration by George L

Commandeering meat for the army during World War I
Cargoes of frozen meat were commandeered by the Government on arrival in the UK. On the eve of the war the prices of provisions shot up suddenly but the Government stepped in

The Threatened Slump in Husbands: post WW1 polgamy imagined
The Bystander takes a humourous look in 1915 at the marriage problems that may arise after the war is over. C.E Peto imagines the social consequences of polgamy becoming permissable in the wake of

Jack Tar Tuna Fish advertisement, WW1
Advertisement for Jack Tar tuna fish, a new fish food, suggested as an alternative idea during food shortages of the First World War. Date: 1918

Food shortages, WW1
London society finds that the only topic of conversation in 1918 is food, rationing and what there is available to eat. An illustration by Annie Fish to accompany the Letters of Eve gossip column in

Eve talks to Lord Rhondda, the Food Controller, WW1
Eve, the fictional gossip columnist of The Tatler magazine, lectures Lord Rhondda, the Food Controller during the latter part of the First World War, on the fact that his economy campaign

Munitions scandal, cartoon, WW1
Cartoon from London Opinion reproduced in The Tatler in their Pictorial Politics, column, showing a British officer, representing the Army, talking to a shopkeeper, representing John Bull

Growing vegetables for victory, WW1
A page from The Graphic demonstrating the wide variety of ways the British population was growing vegetables during the First World War

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