The War Effort

Everyone in Britain was asked to help win the war by making extra efforts at home, including:

recycling glass bottles and paper;
fixing things instead of throwing them away;
sewing repairs to clothes;
making coats and baby clothes from old blankets and pillow cases;
painting the soles of shoes with varnish to make them last longer.

Many voluntary organisations such as The Boy Scouts and The Girl Guides also organised collections of scrap metal such as old cooking pans to melted down and used again. Although much of the salvage was quite useless to the war effort, the psychological effects were very valuable - everybody could be seen to be making sacrifices and contributing in a very tangible way.

The slogan ‘Make Do and Mend’ encouraged people not to waste anything.