A Guernsey evacuee remembers wartime food in England

Beryl Sebire (née Saich) interviewed by Matt Harvey, Social History Officer, Guernsey Museum. The interview recorded on video. The video transcribed by J David 5-8/9/2005

……….. What were you eating while you were over there?
Beryl Sebire. Rations, you mean? Well, everything was rationed. And funnily enough, I was looking through some papers the other day, and we were rationed over here, and I looked at the date, and it was in 1953 we came off rationing. 1953. it was quite a long time. How I know it’s like that, my first boy was born in 49, and everything was rationed, it gradually got a bit easier, 53, my second one was born, that’s how I can remember that. We had what’s called a points system, we had ration books as well, and you were allowed so many points, you could either have it as bacon or meat or something in the meat line, and they crossed it off. Then if you wanted something in the way of fat, you could either have butter, two ounces of butter we were allowed, or marge, or lard, but you couldn’t have butter, marge, and lard, just two ounces of one of them. When I was at Uxbridge, three of us, my Aunt used to get six ounces of butter one week, six ounces of marge the next, and six ounces of lard. But I was supposed to have extra milk, and they used to pinch my milk ration. I’ve never forgiven them that! Because I was in my early teens, and people in their early teens got an extra pint of milk. We had our food at the canteen, because it was too far to walk in the lunch hour, I used to say to her sometimes, good food down there, it was lovely. One and theepence, and if you had a pudding it was another threepence. I remember those days well. I came home and said “oh I had a lovely dinner today, biggest piece of beef I’ve ever seen in my life, it was that high and that round” “Oh yes, tell us another” “It was, and you know what it was, I found out afterwards, piece of horse, piece of horse, so I was quite right when I said it was like that. I thought it was a piece of beef, lovely piece of beef, that high, It came out that it was a piece of horse. I’d never have eaten it if I’d known, but it was lovely.
I……….. So when you got your rations, how long did it have to last for, then?
Beryl Sebire. It was a weekly affair. If you wanted, you could save it up, perhaps a person on their own, perhaps they’d save it up for two or three weeks, it looked a lot more. Each page was a weekly ration. My aunt was naughty, she used to have rubber, and the chap in the grocer’s would mark it in pencil, she used to rub the pencil out. We didn’t go very short in Uxbridge, I can tell you! But why not [laughter] we’d not done anything to cause the war so why should we suffer? I said “you shouldn’t do that” “Ah, I’m not the only one as does it! Why do you think Mr — I can’t remember his name — ticks it out in pencil — anyone else would use a pen”. “There’s your ration book, he used to say, looking at her like this, I knew what he was up to” It wasn’t too bad, actually, and my uncle had an allotment as well, it was a railway allotment, because he used to work on the railway, he used to grow vegetables there, and groceries we didn’t go short, not really, there wasn’t masses, but it wasn’t too bad.
I……….. How were you getting about at the time, were you walking everywhere? Were you using your bicycle?
Beryl Sebire. No, I used to walk everywhere, I hardly ever use the bus. Sometimes on a Saturday I’d walk from Uxbridge to Southall, which is five miles, and visit my aunt, and I’d walk there and walk back. Thought nothing about it. Quite fascinated when I first went over with the trolleybuses, up on the wires, with electric poles, you know, I’d sit in the front, up on top, have a good view. After the war, my husband was quite ill, went to Brompton Hospital, he died, he had heart and lung problems, smoked, he stopped but it was too late. And we’d often go to Brompton Hospital for this and that, had things done to him, and as we were going through Southall he’d say “I know where we are, but if I was to close my eyes I’d know where we are, curry, everywhere curry.” What do they call those people, the ones with the Saris, Indians, and there were some others as well, I don’t know what they were, but they all had these Saris. My aunt in Southall, my mum’s sister, that let us have the bits and pieces for our flat, her daughter, my cousin Rene, she said, “Oh, we know what they’ve got again for dinner” it used to come in through the windows and everywhere else, you know, it was curry, curry everywhere.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.