‘Make do and mend’: how Britain managed in and after WW2

Based on experiences in Edgware, north London in the 1940s

In general, people on the British home front during World War Two were innovative in the face of rationing and shortages. The mottos were 'make do and mend', 'Be thankful and never grumble' - and 'Never leave any food on your plate'. This page gives some of the best known examples, but there were many, many more.

cardboard cake covers, iced to look like wedding cakes

1 of 3: Cardboard cover decorated to look like a luxury wedding cake during rationing in World War Two.

Above: Cardboard cover decorated to look like a luxury wedding cake.

Top right: The cover lifted showing that it is hollow.

Bottom right: The smaller cake is revealed.

Photographed in Bushey Lincolnsfields Centre.

2 of 3: Imitation cake lifted to show that it is a hollow cover - as used during rationing in World War Two.

3 of 3: Cake cover lifts to reveal a smaller cake - as used during rationing in World War Two. .

A well-known example of cunning creativity, which I knew about as a child, but never actually saw, was the cardboard covers decorated with plaster and painted to look like wedding cakes. The reality was very different - see the photos. These cardboard covers were passed around from one wedding to another.

Furniture from scrap wood

orange box - wooden vegetable box used by greengrocers in the first part of the 20th century before plastics became common

A typical upturned vegetable box, generally known as an 'orange box', used by greengrocers in the 1940s and which probably served as many a piece of furniture in the shortages of wartime Britain. One was my bedside cabinet.

As an example of making do, my early childhood bedside cabinet was an 'orange box' from the greengrocer. It was made of coarsely cut unvarnished white-wood slats which gave one splinters, hammered together with a few nails, like the one in the photograph. I doubt if it had ever contained oranges, so the name was not at all appropriate. 'Vegetable box' would have been a better name as all vegetables arrived at greengrocers in these boxes and were often displayed in them too. There were no plastic crates.

New clothes for old

Make do and mend poster, WW2

Make do and mend poster. Photographed in Swansea Bay 1940s Museum.

Women became expert dressmakers and tailors. It was quite normal to 'decorate' tears and holes attractively from parts of other worn-out clothes and to cut down adults clothes to make clothes for children.

Swapping and bartering

Although selling rationed things for money was classed as Black Market for which there could be a prison sentence, swopping was legal. So bartering came into its own in this time of rationing and shortages. People would swap things, most shops had postcards in their windows saying things like:

Swap two rabbits for a wedding dress.

Babies cot swap for men's trousers.

Peter Johnson

Why shortages continued after the war

Shortages continued for several years after the war. Rationing did not end until 1954 and was actually more severe in the immediate aftermath of the war than in the war itself. Historians have argued extensively over all the reasons. One was certainly that America withdrew its support of dried eggs and spam when a Labour government was elected after the war.

By the end of the war there were millions of displaced people in Europe from slave camps and concentration camps who were starving to death and who had to be fed and made safe from infection. The problem was gigantic. Holland, Belgium, Germany and Denmark had been reduced to starvation diets by the war. In Holland people were reduced to eating grass, and even cats and dogs. This I have since been told during trips there.

So, although the safe seas, Australia and New Zealand were able to ship out large quantities of beef, lamb, butter cheese, it was decided that we should go on a reduced allowance in order to send supplies into Europe. The Irish, who did not take part in the war, were able to supply us with fresh dairy products once hostilities had ended, and most of our beef, both frozen and tinned was coming from Argentina.

Tins of Fray Bentos corned beef, an English staple in the shortages after WW2

Tins of Fray Bentos corned beef. Photographed in Swansea Bay Museum.

We seemed to live on corned beef from Argentina. The brand was Fray Bentos, which became a household name.

The powdered eggs and spam that we had enjoyed from America was diverted into Europe. So rationing did not cease at the end of the war, nor were the allowances increased. In fact, the UK was the last country to end rationing after the war.

Britain had borrowed vast sums of money to finance our part in the war, mainly from the USA, and they were seeking re-payment. It took some 50 years to pay off this National Debt. We were crippled by the war and in some ways have still not recovered.