"as good as mother makes?": food, family and the western front by rachel duffett

‘”‘”As good as Mother makes?”: As good as Mother makes?”: Food, Family and the Western Food, Family and the Western

Front.’Front.’

Dr Rachel DuffettDr Rachel Duffett

University of EssexUniversity of Essex

Everyday Lives in War FWW Everyday Lives in War FWW CentreCentre

‘Have heard a good deal about German atrocities, but in some respects the British are quite as bad and cruel, for weeks together we have not had a second vegetable, often none at all…’

S.T. Eachus, IWM 01/51/1diary entry dated 16.8.1916

‘I have not seen any dead. I have done worse. In the dank air I have perceived it, and in the darkness, felt… No Man’s Land under snow is like the face of the moon chaotic, crater-ridden, uninhabitable, awful, the abode of madness.’

Wilfred Owen to his mother, 19 January 1917

‘I do not like writing here nothing to talk about and nobody to see only fresh green fields.’

George Stopher to his mother, 20 May 1916George Stopher to his mother, 20 May 1916

© Ipswich Records Office

British Army Frontline Ration ScaleBritish Army Frontline Ration Scale(4,193 calories per day)(4,193 calories per day)

19171917Meat (fresh or frozen)Meat (fresh or frozen) 1 lb1 lb

oror

Meat (preserved)Meat (preserved) 9 oz9 oz

BreadBread 1 lb1 lb

oror

BiscuitBiscuit 10 oz10 oz

BaconBacon 4 oz 4 oz

CheeseCheese 2 oz 2 oz

Fresh VegetablesFresh Vegetables 8 oz 8 oz

TeaTea 5/8 oz 5/8 oz

JamJam 3 oz 3 oz

SugarSugar 3 oz 3 oz

Distributing the rations

Sgt Herring’s picture frame - carved from a hardtack biscuit

© Imperial war Museum

Fish PasteFish Paste

8 tins of Bully Beef8 tins of Bully Beef

4 tins of sardines4 tins of sardines

PepperPepper

Pass the meat and sardines through mincerPass the meat and sardines through mincer

twice, and add pepper. Press well down into twice, and add pepper. Press well down into

a kettle lid, smooth over and pour a little a kettle lid, smooth over and pour a little

melted fat over the top to give a face.melted fat over the top to give a face.

‘It was simply a wild scramble, such as respectable people could not imagine, and a very rough introduction to army life. It was no use waiting til the scramble had subsided. That only meant we should get nothing, so, like hundreds of others had to, I scrambled for food.’

John Jackson, Private 12768: Memoir of a Tommy (Stroud, 2005), p. 17.

Meal in a training camp near Eastbourne, 1916

Connections with homeConnections with home

The Home Depot, Regents Park

Mail being sorted in the field

Parcels from home

Image from The Sphere, caption reads: "The Christmas mail for the fronthas been larger than ever this year, and the Post Office has been dispatching parcels to the soldiers at the rate of a quarter of a million a day. The picture shows a few of them arriving at their destination at the front."

"as good as mother makes?": food, family and the western front by rachel duffett

Education