The Great British High Street During The First World War

Over the last few years, we have seen the British high street change a lot in a short space of time. It led me to thinking about how the high street used to be, so I thought I would find out.

The early 1900s had been a time where there was a huge divide on the high street between those who had money and those who didn't. For those where money was never limited, they could spend there time and money browsing around department stores such as Selfridges or visiting their local tailor or dressmaker to have something bespoke made for them. People who had limited money had to resort to buying second hand from local market stalls where they could pick up a bargain. 

Another popular business on the high street was tearooms. For those that could afford it, they would be able to join friends or family whilst enjoying a nice cup of tea and a delicious fresh cake. It wasn't just the wealthy that used tearooms, as it has been noted that some poorer people would save up for a long time so that they could have a treat at the local tearoom, usually for a special occasion such as a birthday. 

It is the norm today to just pop out to the local supermarket and pick up everything you need in one place however back in pre-war Britain you would buy your meat from the butchers, food basics such as butter and fresh fruit and veg, sweets could be bought from the sweetshop and you would visit the ironmonger for various tools. Unlike supermarkets today, when visiting these types of shops, the produce would come in whole and the shopkeeper would weight out and cut the amount each individual needed. It saved a lot on packaging and wastage. For things like cotton, you could pick them up in the penny bazaar's where all manner of cheap but useful things were sold, all for just a penny. 

The high street itself was often a friend yet busy atmosphere. Everyone, mainly women were out of the house early to ensure they got the best products. The later in the day they went, the more likely they were to get fruit and veg on the turn or the meat that nobody else wanted. During the 1910s, lamps were still lit by hand each evening as electricity was yet to arrive on the high street. Newspapers could be bought on street corners rather than in shops and passers-by would be able to hear the seller shouting about the latest headlines. At a time when not everyone could read, this was how most people heard that Britain was at war with Germany. 

The outbreak of war saw recruitment offices pop up all over the country with most of them being located on the high street to attract more people. Reports described how queues of people could be seen on the high street all wanting to volunteer. 

As the war dragged on, the high street was hugely affected. Many roles were taken over by women for a start and at lot of these women now had money to spare. But with it getting harder to get supplies to Britain, the shops were having less and less for sale. Queues would form at the local shops in order to get some food. People were told to not buy things unnecessarily but the government knew they needed to do something more to restrict the amount people could buy. The answer - rationing which was brought into force in January 1918 with the restriction of sugar. This meant in theory that no matter how much money you had, you all were entitled to the same amount of restricted foods. 

By April, other items such as meat, cheese, butter and margarine were also rationed. The government was able to enforce rationing in a short space of time by issuing everybody with a ration card. In order to receive your weekly ration, you had to register with you local butcher and grocer and this was the only place you would be able to buy rationed products from. With the ration books came a lot of hard work and filling in forms for the shopkeepers which all took time. This meant that in some overpopulated places, you could expect to queue up for hours just to get your weeks ration. 

The war changed the high street like never before. It was never going to go back for the war had started to shape it into what we know today. The rationing of items didn't just finish with the end of the war. Britain struggled through more austerity as the years went by. After all, Britain had spent millions to win the war as a consequence was in debt. The number of men that had been killed or injured during the war had affected family life and so for a lot of poorer families, money was extremely tight. They couldn't afford a lot of the basics let alone any treats or luxuries. Of those who were lucky enough to return home after the war in okay form, many then had to fight the battle to survive the Spanish Flu epidemic that swept across Britain. A lot of Men were unable to work in the industries they had pre-war so the shops continued to look bare. With people having less and less money as the post-war years dragged on, people needed products as cheap as possible and this saw the end to many businesses on the high street. 

Poor Families Of The First World War

In part two I'm going to explore the effects of the First World War on the poorer families of Britain and see what their lives were like. 

Pre-war life was hard for the working class and many families across Britain were living in slums that were dirty, overcrowded and would be deemed not fit to live in by today's standard. Whole families could be found to be renting one or two rooms instead of a hold house and were expected to share the outside toilet with a dozen other large families. 

When war broke out, most of the men from the poorer areas went straight to the recruiting office to volunteer. many of these me were unemployed or were casual labour so the thought of having a job to do whilst seeing some of the war seemed like a big adventure to them. With the main breadwinner's away, the responsibility of surviving was left on the women's shoulders solely. Due to this we saw an increase in the amount of homes containing more than two generations as grandparents moved in with their families both to save money and to help out with running the home so that the mother could go to work. They would carry out the housework as well as looking after the children.

With more and more factories turning over to war work, jobs were easier to come by and came with relatively good wages, although they would still get less than a man for doing the same job. These new opportunities caused a lot of mothers to go out to work so that they could support their families. With many families having six or more children money would still be tight but they could at least afford to keep a roof over their head. 

With the war dragging on, food was becoming harder to come by and thus was becoming more and more expensive. Unlike the wealthy who had no limit to the cost of the food they ate, poorer families just couldn't afford much and so many were living on potatoes or bread and dripping to get them through each day.  

By the end of the war, the role of the individual family members had changed with many families getting used to coping with their menfolk being away, so much so that when the soldiers returned from war they often found it difficult to fit in and cope with how much had changed whilst they were away. For all their bravery and help fighting to win the war, they were often left unemployed and with little or no money. 

Unlike the rich, who as a consequence of the war had more wealth, the poor were left with nothing and would face a bitter struggle to survive each day. The workhouse would see more people arriving on its doorstep and the suicide rate increased. The war had changed everyone's lives and began to shape the life we know today.

Rich Families Of The First World War

When people think of the First World War, a lot of people think it was a 'we're all in this together' time, but was that really the case? I intend to find out by looking to see if there was a divide between the rich and the poor. In the first of two parts, I'm going to look at what life was like for those that were wealthy during wartime.

Whenever you read about the beginning of the First World War, there are stories of young men from all backgrounds volunteering for the army as soon as war broke out. However, for some of those that could afford to, they paid somebody, who usually was poor and needed the money, to pose as them to carry out their medical tests for the army. The men that were chosen to do this had medical problems that would mean they would fail the test and be exempt from active duty on the front line. This could range from bad sight or hearing to being flat-footed or found to have heart or breathing problems. Once a wealthy man had his exemption certificate, he could relax and stay at home. He may still have been expected to carry out war work but it would be far less dangerous that fighting in the trenches.

For those that wanted to fight the war, having money or status meant that a lot of them went straight into the army with the rank of Officer with very little training. This caused unrest for the private ranks because they felt many of the officer's didn't have a clue what they were doing or would just treat the privates like slaves. However, having said this, looking back at the war, those wealthy officers did have just as difficult and dangerous a time as the privates. After all they were the ones who had to lead their men, being the first to go over the top and usually being the main target. After all, without an officer to lead them, the enemy knew chaos would ensue and thus allow them to gain more land. They also had the job of keeping their men in line in accordance with the army even if they themselves also didn't want to. 

Pre-war, the wealthy were used to having vast houses with many boosting around twenty rooms and land as far as the eye could see. The families of houses like these could be found to have a large quantity of servants to carry out all manner of jobs from cook and gardener to lady's maid, footman and butler. However, at the outbreak of war this was to change and it would be change that would eventually see domestic service disappear almost entirely. With many of the servants being men, they ever volunteered or were later called up. This meant that the household was run by men that were either too young or too old or unfit to service the army and women. Yet with more and more factories springing up across Britain to turn out war goods, many women stood left the hard, long hours of working as a servant and instead chose to work in the dangerous conditions of munition factories which offered a much higher wage. 

Houses which were deemed large enough were converted to be used as a hospital or convalescence house for those soldiers returning from the front. Houses would be used like this for the duration of the war and families would be expected to either help or find somewhere else to live until the war was over. 

One thing that many families had in common rich and poor alike was the having to get used to their menfolk being away whilst fighting the war as well as the devastation of one of them being killed. Mother's, wives and children up and down the country were all waiting at home for news of their loved one whether rich or poor. One of the only thing that money couldn't buy was the knowledge of safety of a loved one, instead the people on the home front had to wait weeks, sometimes months for any news. 

By the end of the war, the rich had seemed to get richer and the rich poor divide became greater. Factory owners had grown their wealth through contracted given by the government to product war goods. However, for all of their wealth, servants were harder to come by. Many of the men had either been killed or were injured and unable to work. For the women, they had been able to have a life that was without restriction and many had some money behind them now. They no longer wanted to work long, tiring hours for little money. This meant that the war had changed the lives of the rich forever. 

Join me next time when I look at what life was like for the poor during the First World War.