Rationing, Evacuation and Daily Life in Britain

For British civilians, the war changed nearly every part of daily life. In the first days of September 1939, about 1. 5 million people, mostly schoolchildren, were evacuated from cities to the countryside in Operation Pied Piper. Many children were well cared for, but others faced hardship, and the experience exposed middle-class hosts to urban poverty they had not known. Food rationing began in January 1940 with bacon, butter and sugar, and later covered meat, cheese, tea and clothing.

The government encouraged people to 'Dig for Victory' by growing vegetables in gardens and parks. A nightly blackout made streets dark and dangerous. Many historians argue that shared sacrifice and new state planning encouraged support for the welfare state: the Beveridge Report of 1942 proposed social security from 'cradle to grave'. Rationing did not fully end until 1954, nine years after the war.