Spaghetti, Sardines and Semolina: Changes in the Food Supply on the Home Front 1914 to 1918
Helen George explains the ways in which rationing influenced how people shopped and what they ate during the First World War in this fascinating post based on a talk she gave at the WESWWHN Conference on Historical Perspectives on Women and Food in 2025. Ration cards, powdered eggs, long queues for food: they usually conjure up visions of the Second World War Home Front. However, through my research into home life during the First World War I have found that they were very much part of daily toil a generation earlier. Between 1914 and 1918 submarine warfare decimated merchant shipping, leaving import-dependent Britain dangerously short of food. What of the young wives and mothers struggling to feed their families and manage household budgets as their menfolk joined the Armed Services? They had to change their shopping practices, manage their homes with fewer or no domestic servants, cope with acute food shortages, encourage their families to try new foods and, during the last yea...