Thank you Neal, Sara & Janet.
Rationing of clothing started in 1941.
Clothes rationing was especially odious for teenagers with their age old desire to be stylish. Everybody was issued a clothing ration book full of coupons of various point values. You were allowed sixty six points a year (representing one complete outfit of clothing) -- if you could find a shop that even had the items of clothing you wanted (the Utility clothing approved by the government was, to put it kindly, uninspired and unattractive). Everybody was encouraged to "make do and mend" by patching worn or torn clothing and to hand down clothing they had out grown or no longer wanted to family members. The foregoing explains why so many people look to be dressed funny in vintage WWII photographs.
This photo is me in the middle of the war (1943 -- age fourteen) taken in my auntie Clara Howarth's rear garden, 59 Glen View Rd, Burnley. Check out my kind of tacky looking clothes -- the too small jacket was a hand me down from a cousin (Dick Wills who was in the RAF) and the oversize baggy trousers had belonged to my uncle Jim Howarth. But with the jacket worth 10 points and the trousers worth 8 they represented a great ration book saving for me -- we were all (at least my family was) happy to sacrifice style for practicality during the war.
