How far did WW1 change life in Britain?
Lauren Cannon
World War One certainly changed life in Britain, each class was affected by the war which they though would be over by Christmas. The shock was that it lasted for four long years where the men at war weren't the only ones suffering, there are many factors that affected this such as food and women.
There were issues with food for the people in Britain, within less than year there were already problems of rising prices. Asquith admitted that over the period of a year (Feb 1914-1915), the prices of flour, sugar and coal had risen due to the difficulty to insuring trading ships from foreign countries. The British Prime Minister assured the British that the rise in price was not any worse than the Franco Prussian War (1870). In February 1917, an appeal for voluntary rationing was published restricting each civilian to 4lbs of bread, 2.5lbs
of meat and 0.75lbs of sugar per week. Nine months later, The Times released a list with items such as sugar, margarine, milk, rice, pork and spirits said to be in short supply. The queues were also growing up to the length of a mile with women queuing since 5am, with 1/3 of them being turned away. Prices of bread carried on rising until in September 1918 where a subsidy fixed the price of a loaf of bread at ninepence. The Government decided to make 'coupons' for each customers ration card, which only allowed a weekly ration of 3/4lb of meat from April 1918. On the topic of food, it changed life in Britain dramatically whether people's everyday life would revolve around queuing, hunger and immense rationings on essential items.
Censorship and media was enforced through the Great War to keep the people...