Recipes for police families in times of near starvation in Britain in the First World War

@drmaryfraser

By April 1917 the British Food Controller advised the nation to eat as little bread as possible. As potatoes were almost unavailable in towns, drastic measures to feed the nation at home were needed. Advice to police wives through the police journal was to substitute eating bread and potatoes for swedes or mangold-wurzels (usually used as cattle feed and said to be very unpalatable), which were reputedly plentiful and inexpensive. Because mangold-wurzel was so unpalatable, the Food Controller’s Office experimented with recipes to improve its palatability – four of these recipes were published in the police journal The Police Review:

"I.

1 lb. mangold-wurzel. 
¼ lb. vegetable butter or dripping. 
2 small onions. 
Pepper and salt. 
Cook the mangold-wurzel in the butter for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Then add the onion (which has been previously chopped) and pepper and salt. Drain for a moment before serving on cooked lentils, buttered rice or cheese sauce.

II.
1 lb. mangold-wurzel.
2 oz. vegetable butter or dripping.
2 tablespoons of stock (vegetable or meat).
A little pepper and salt.
Cut the mangold-wurzel into small dices. Dust them in wholemeal flour. Place in saucepan together with the butter and stock and let simmer till tender, but care must be taken that the mixture does not boil. Serve as a vegetable."


III
1 lb. mangold-wurzel (cut into dice and cook as for No. 1)
Drain and then dip them into a batter made from the following:- 1 egg; 1/4 lb. flour, 2 oz. bread crumbs, sufficient milk to make a nice frying batter.
Fry in vegetable butter and other cooking butter or dripping"

@drmaryfraser

Restricted food imports in 1917 make impacts on police families

@drmaryfraser

Prime Minister David Lloyd George told parliament in February 1917 about the amount of tonnage of shipping bringing foodstuffs to Britain - at this time the nation was reliant on large imports of basic food items. Around a third of British shipping was needed to move troops, armaments and supplies to the battlefront in France and other locations. This meant that far less ships could be used to import food supplies to the Home Front. February 1917 saw a crisis in the availability of food in Britain and rapid changes were necessary to ensure the nation did not starve.
The items that Lloyd George aimed to restrict were:

• Apples, tomatoes, and certain raw fruits - these should be produced at home, not imported;
  
• Oranges, bananas, grapes, almonds, and nuts would be restricted to 25% of previous imports;
• Aerated mineral and table waters would no longer be imported: they should be produced at home;
• imports of tea would be reduced as they came from a long distance;
• coffee and cocoa were already in sufficient quantities at home, so imports would be stopped;
• imports of meat would be restricted, the nation should rely on home grown meat.

These restriction, along with government action and campaigns to increase home food production led to many people, including policemen and their families, digging up their gardens, ploughing the fields and growing vegetables on allotments to increase the nation's food supply. By Spring 1918 there was a huge increase in the amount of land producing food. This lifted the nation's spirits and gave renewed hope for victory.

The police wife's struggle to feed her family in 1917

@drmaryfraser

The hardship in January 1917 was such that police wives began to discuss ways of supplementing the family income. While many women throughout Britain were working outside the home, often earning good money in munitions and other factories and workshops which helped them to offset some of the steep price rises since the beginning of the war in August 1914, the police wife was not allowed to work outside the home. Any wife who did would likely cause her husband to be reprimanded and if she continued would ruin his promotion chances. Therefore, many police wives in hard times turned to how they could earn additional money from the home. Keeping poultry and selling the eggs was a favourite method. As average egg prices had risen by more than 170% since July 1914, keeping poultry and selling the eggs would have been quite lucrative, as well as providing additional food for the family. Keeping rabbits for sale as food, particularly for town dwellers with limited outdoor space, was also advocated. Wives with no outside spaces to keep livestock suggested laundry, ironing and needlework.
Pamphlet from the National Archives NSC 7/37 

@drmaryfraser