Both lists are basically the same price, the first list is a bit dearer, but don't forget you got money back when you returned the bottle, or at least the kids did..
There were some thing's you didn't have to pay for.Due to the shortage of material's from the war effort,My uncle used to tell me, "you could go to the cinema for an empty jam jar" Don't know if anyone remembers doing that. The average cost of a house (1941) was around £500,(if you could find one still standing)which beg's the question,were people ever compensated for their destroyed homes after the war?or was it a case of T-D's avatar? regards......Graham.
Yes, people were compensated. See War Damage Commission and War Damage Office Records, IR Division 24 at Kew. There is a long explanation in the introduction which includes this: "Cost of works payments could be made as soon as incurred but value payments were to be made at a date to be fixed by the Treasury which, for most claimants, was not until November 1947 although at an enhanced rate, the 1939 figure no longer being thought adequate."
Hi papiermache, That triggered the prefab,simple quickly erected cheap houses.As most people know,they were built in vast number's. People I believe were offered a certificate with a promise that a proper house would be built at a later date. Lot's of people loved them and spent the rest of their lives in them. Some modernised them, and there are still quite a few of them dotted around the country. cheer's ..........Graham.
I'd never heard of Russian Stout before. Apparently Russian or Imperial stout was brewed especially to stand the rigours of shipping through the Baltic to Russia during the C18th. It's still being brewed and I tried a bottle last night - very nice it was too! Similar to Old Peculiar. Cheers !
From Hansard: ALCOHOLIC LIQUOR. HC Deb 11 March 1941 vol 369 cc1134-5 " Mr. Mathers asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has considered the resolution passed at the annual meeting of the Scottish Temperance Alliance, urging the restriction of the manufacture and consumption of alcoholic liquors to assist the national effort; and whether action is being taken to this end? § The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. T. Johnston) Yes, Sir. The resolution referred to has been considered. As my hon. Friend is aware, certain restrictions are presently in operation. Production of whisky is limited to one-third of the quantity produced in the year ending 30th September, 1939, and sugar for beer is now reduced to 60 per cent. of the quantity used in that year. There have been increases in price of whisky and beer arising from higher excise duties and consumption has decreased. I have, however brought the views expressed in the resolution to the notice of other Ministers concerned, and I shall continue with them to keep a close watch on the situation." See also various examples of weekly pay and expenditure in a long debate in December 1941. SERVICE PAY AND DEPENDANTS' ALLOWANCES. HC Deb 17 December 1941 vol 376 cc1965-2043 extract from a speech by a Mr. Beaumont: " But we find this strange anomaly, that the unmarried soldier has 17s. 6d. a week to spend, whereas the married soldier has only 10s. 6d. That amount is reduced by charges such as barrack-room charges, cleaning of equipment and so forth. These approximate to about 1s. a week. You have this tremendous difference that the married soldier has only something like 9s. 6d. a week to spend while the unmarried soldier has 16s. 6d. When we consider the high price of cigarettes and tobacco and the increased price of beer—"
Graham, On the subject of prefabs, I was brought home from the nursing home to a new prefab in the late 1940's but was moved to a different town a few weeks later where the accommodation was pre-war. My current home was partly "prefabbed" in the 16th century when the frame was cut from newly-felled oak and erected in the builder's yard before being dismantled and moved to site. What remains of the frame still supports an extra floor added in the early 19th century, and a post-WW2 brick front, but the "plate" or ground sill or beams rotted away long ago. The oak is now hard as iron, also damaged by fire in the 1960's. Oak is a magnificent material, it takes up different strain, but creaks a bit. There were much-loved post-war prefabs locally which had to be demolished in the late 1980's because the reinforced concrete failed .There's a pre-fab on the IWM site at Duxford. John
Did'nt the government order brewer's to drop the specific gravity and thus weaken beer's during the war. I guess they wanted people to spend more money and drink more to help the economy. John, ref post 28, didn't they call it Mundic. if your house was built with class b mundic block,you could only sell it to a cash buyer? Graham.
Graham, I've not heard of the block you mention. The problems were set out in this debate in the commons, and the Housing Act 1985 contained provisions relating to prefabs. System-built Houses HC Deb 12 March 1984 vol 56 cc52-88. As for beer and lack of sugar, decrease in original gravity, and increase in excise duty, I recall my late mother-in-law ( who served with the Royal Artillery on "mixed heavies") saying that she didn't like beer, would prefer to drink "gin and it", or gin and lime or orange, and found that scrumpy was powerful stuff. Rough cider was often the only thing on offer, but I don't think she liked it much. On the other hand, she and her lady gunners found some pubs would be unwilling to serve females without men in their party. She was in "doodlebug alley" trying to shoot down flying bombs in her role on the "predictor" and living under canvas. One day the gun site was strafed by a German fighter and she was incensed that she could see the pilot in his cockpit laughing at her, which was worse than shooting at her. It was then a case of "bloody krauts", taking a drag on a purple Silk Cut, and taking a drink of red wine, her preferred tipple. Cheers !
A large glass of merlot or chardonnay and a cigar (outside) takes some beating. This takes us back to my first post on this thread.What was she paid? and did she bring down any of those flying terror bombs? by the way, you can still buy Silk-Cut. around £10 a packet. Graham.
good gord! i switched to these about 25 years back from B&H in a pathetic attempt to save my legs from being chopped off. finally quit smoking in 2004. smoking now would cost me about £150 a week!
Graham, she did help to shoot down some flying bombs but there were arguments over claims between other gun sites and the R.A.F. fighters. Rates of pay and allowances for service personnel and their dependants are often mentioned in Hansard of which these two extracts give a flavour. In theory women's rates were calculated at two thirds of the pay of a man of equivalent rank. This is from April 1940. " HC Deb 30 April 1940 vol 360 cc526-7 Mr. A. Edwards asked the Secretary of State for War what is the comparative cost of equipping a man and a woman in the Services and the relative rates of pay; and whether a woman so enlisted actually releases a man for some form of service for which a woman is unsuited? Mr. Stanley The hon. Member has brought a statement in. the Press to my notice and I am glad to have this opportunity of stating the facts. The Army officer receives an outfit allowance of £30, or, in some cases, £40, and a camp kit allowance of £7 10s. Auxiliary Territorial Service officers received corresponding allowances of £30 and £7 10s. in all cases. The cost of the initial equipment of other ranks is £14 5s. in the case of the soldier, and £10 13s. in the case of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The rates of pay of Auxiliary Territorial Service personnel are two-thirds of the rates for officers and soldiers of equivalent ranks, but the full average cost a head is little more than half. More Auxiliary Territorial Service volunteers are required than the numbers of soldiers they release. On some duties, for example, clerical, the numbers are the same; on others, involving long hours and heavier work, it is necessary to provide more volunteers than soldiers. The average proportion of Auxiliary Territorial Service volunteers to the soldiers they release is 5 to 4. With allowance for this factor, the full cost of the Auxiliary Territorial Service volunteers is about two-thirds of that of the soldiers they release." From March 1941. "HC Deb 18 March 1941 vol 370 cc49-109 Mr. Bellenger Consider the pay of the private soldier. He gets 2s. 6d. a day, and after six months' service, if he is proficient, he gets an extra 6d. per day war proficiency pay, that is, 21s. a week. I do not say that in the case of the single man that is not adequate. Naturally he would like more, and if we could afford it, we ought to pay more because his service is very arduous and often very dangerous, but in the case of married soldiers, I believe that the rates of pay and the allowances to the dependants, whether they be wives or mothers and fathers, are totally inadequate. At the present moment we have fixed scales laid down by Parliament. In addition, there is a Committee which is administered by the Minister of Pensions for granting some supplementary allowance in the case of dependants who can prove that they are in need of some additional allowance, and it is very disquieting to know that of the 300,000 or more cases which have come before the Hardship Committee one-third have been turned down. There is no doubt that a considerable proportion of that one-third has been turned down because of the application of the household means test which we are now in the process of partly eliminating in the case of those who are not connected with the Army." In 1968 a lot more people smoked and 20 Player's No.6 (tipped) were about 1s 11d ( less than 10p ) and Disque Bleu ( French cigarettes ) were about 3s. ( 15p) .Five Park Drive tipped and a penny box of matches was 10 old pence ( about 4p ) . In 1968 petrol was about 5 shillings a gallon or 4.54 litres, so about 5 p per litre, and sparking plugs were always 5 shillings but cost about an old penny to make. Sorry, not 1941. John
In David Rolf's book "Prisoners of the Reich" he gives some statistics relating to the Red Cross one of which was that 10/- (50p) was the cost of one Red Cross food parcel. Over 19,000,000 were sent to POW camps over the five years of war.
According to AA figures, in 1940, a gallon of 4star equivalent would cost 2/-, so a 10/- note would buy 5 gallons (22.5 litres). So, at today's prices, about £27. Gordon
Hi Gordon, As a lot of people would say, including my father " those were the day's " all the best............Graham.
