WW2 Rationing & Cooking for Victory, A Fair Share for All
Karen Wiles SpeakerNet Sponsor
- Regions:
- England, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Hobby
- Fee:
- Paid: £75 for the talk, plus 50ppm travel expenses
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 12th November 2026
- Tagged:
- Rationing | Home Front
During this entertaining talk we talk about why rationing was necessary in WW2, how the rationing system worked, what was on ration and more importantly what foods were off ration. Some surprising things the Ministry of Food tried to get the British public to eat, some definitely didn’t take off, others became firm favourites. Discover what it was like to eat out and find out how the British public kept the country going with the Dig for Victory campaign, keeping chickens, rabbits and pigs in their back gardens. We can include samples of wartime recipes if required.
Views: 9 | Enquiries: 0About Karen Wiles
We are Karen and Bret Wiles, we live on our Dutch Barge on the river Thames in Oxfordshire. Throughout the summer we frequently move, but in the winter we have a permanent mooring in Goring on Thames.
We are WW2 Home Front historians and re-enactors, we specialise in what women and children did to help the war effort in WW2, We started our interest over 10 years ago with a visit to a WW2 event at Stoke Bruern that manifested into a talk for schools, as we thought there was a gap in children's knowledge about what it was like to be a child in the 1940s. We found adults were also interested so we now have 11 talks for adults and 4 talks for schools and children's groups.
Research is ever ongoing and our talks are updated frequently updated.
We do talks for U3A groups, Probus, Historical Societies and are accredited speakers for Oxfordshire and Berkshire WIs. We are very happy to do talks for other groups, small and large.
Our talks are PowerPoint presentations and include hundreds of original photos, music, and film clips, there is always something going on the screen while we narrate through the talk. We usually take along a small display of related memorabilia. All talks are 1 hour long.
Our website www.doingtheirbit.co.uk includes all details of our talks, what we bring with us, our fees, etc. as well as details of individual talks.
We can be contacted by email contact@doingtheirbit.co.uk
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Karen Wiles
- Wartime Children
- The Women's Voluntary Service from 1938-1945
- Life on the Home Front
- How the Brownies helped win the war
- 1940s Girl Guides
- The Women's Institute in WW2, not just Jam and Jerusalem
- WW2 Women's Fashion, Dressing on the Ration
- Upper Thames Patrol, the Home Guard Navy of WW2
- 1940s Boy Scouts
- Isn't It Cold in the Winter? Life on Board a Dutch Barge
- Wartime Children for Schools
- Brownies in Wartime for Brownie Packs
- Girl Guides in WW2 for Guide Groups
- Girl Guides Emergency Cooking for Guide Groups
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