To wonder how people in ww2 paid their rent and mortgages?

[heateallthebuns]

It's not really aibu, but chat isn't working for me this morning.

If a man was conscripted and was a soldier in the war. Did he get paid? Was it enough to cover rent / mortgage?

I guess single people just gave up their rented houses? What about families?

Remember Men behaving badly? It wasn't weird they were sharing a bedroom in 1990 or whenever it started. I sure would be now

That's because they weren't sharing a bedroom. They were living in a flat with separate bedrooms.
(Sorry, I know that's OT, but it's bizarre that you thought they were).

People also when bombed out were billeted with others. My Grandparents did own their house and my Mother has told me that they had Jewish refugees live with them for quite a while and also a young British couple who were bombed out of their home, though they didn't stay that long.

Agree with others that it was incredibly rare to live as a single person till the 1970's, census confirms this. When people look at current housing shortages it's a fact often overlooked. Amongst my immediate 10 neighbours 4 live alone and these are all quite large family homes.

My father's family was much better off during the war, because my grandfather had a small business that he "ran" very badly (everyone got "mates rates" and there was nothing left for, well, food for the children etc.). When he went into the army and my grandmother took over the business, they went through a brief period of relative prosperity, because she was excellent at running the business, and managing the money that came in from his pay.

When he came back and she was forced to let him take over the business again the family returned to abject poverty. The only good thing I can say for him was that he didn't drink the money away. He just failed to earn it in the first place.

I suspect that this situation was mirrored in many working class families.

When I was at Uni, early 70s, some halls of residence had shared rooms! Single sex halls and all visitors out by ten!

During WW2, my school was evacuated out of London to Oxford. All the girls and teachers went and took over empty houses, or went to live with complete strangers! They shared another girls school, one school was in the morning, the other in the afternoon.

My grandfather earned 2 shillings a day in the army from 1939, this increased as he gained his trades and experience. My grandmother used to tell me that she went to the post office with a pass book each week to withdraw my grandfathers wages in cash (some was retained for him to use). When the post office was bombed it took 2 weeks to get it transferred to another.

Many people became fire watchers (not firemen) part time - they were stationed on buildings to watch for incendiary bombs - which would be put out with sand.

My other grandfather was auxiliary fire brigade (Birmingham and Coventry) - definitely not a part time job! It was another front line - just as dangerous.

Grandma also maintained a tradition of keeping house insurance documents and other important documents in a tin, which went into the shelter with them in case they were bombed out.

I don't know about my grandparents living arrangements as they were not married until after the war. But I do know my maternal grandfather was a bricklayer with the Royal Engineers and earned 3 shillings (36p) per day. In today's money that's about £20 a day. That's a bit more than the average infantryman who got 2 shillings per day, but I guess my grandfather was considered a skilled worker.

DH's paternal grandparents lived with his grandfather's parents - they had a shotgun wedding in 1943 with DH's dad following 5 months later

I can confirm you could be chucked out of a tied cottage if you went to war. My great gran found herself in that situation and they had to move. They ended up living in terrible conditions until they were moved to council after the war.

Many people lived in shared houses after marriage, with extended family and other married siblings and their children too.

This was still the case in the fifties.

Re children weeing in corners;
The World at War series had an episode on evacuated children. It featured an interview with a very posh man who had taken in a bunch of evacuees, kept them all in one room together, away from the rest of the family and then been apparently disgusted by their toilet habits.
The next interview was a child psychologist who explained that children often display soiling behaviours if they are traumatised by being removed from their parents.
I think this might be the germ of truth in the "dirty evacuee" thing. Child psychology wasn't very well understood at the time so country people would have seen the kids acting oddly and assumed it was a reflection on how they normally behaved at home.

When I was at Edinburgh Uni earlly 1990's there were shared rooms, single sex floors, and visitors out by 10 unless you were in 'married rooms' (and I had a 'sleepover' in one of those - he was not married - and the door was opened by Collge with a master key and we were told to 'get decent and leave'!!!

Ordinary people did have healthcare pre-NHS, by way of insurance schemes. My DGM came from a pretty abject background, and worked in a factory, waitress etc, but was pretty canny and prioritised paying into such a scheme.

Re renting, ISTR the law was changed on repairing obligations after WW1 (though may have been WW2): previously, all repairs had been the tenant's responsibility, so you might be bombed out AND then have the job of sorting it out .

This is a great thread, thank you!

My dad was born in 1941 and yes, he just lived in digs (lodgings) while jobbing around after leaving home in his late teens. He didn't settle in a home until he married my mum in 67, who had lived with her parents till then. They rented a bedsit before buying a terraced house shortly after my older brother was born.

As for the war, my dad's dad stayed at home working to supervise the blackouts - making sure all street lights were out and windows covered etc. He was only in his 20s, so I'm not sure why he didn't go away to war, maybe there was a health reason.
I don't think my mum's dad went away either. He was about 39 when war broke out so again I don't know if that was health related. He was a bricklayer so he maybe was involved in the war effort at home that way.

I never heard of anyone peeing on a newspaper on the floor, like a dog. You used the outside loo in the backyard, or a po' at night which was of course emptied and washed the next morning.

My dad had 4 siblings, and they lived in a 2 bed house with my grandparents, all 5 children on 2 mattresses in the one room. My mum also lived in a 2 bed house with 2 brothers and her parents. She had to sleep 💤 in a curtained off corner of their bedroom till she was 15, and didn't get a bedroom of her own till her younger brother left home.

Keep the stories coming - this is a really interesting thread.

Between the wars thing were very difficult. My grandfather was a miner and he was laid off. Of course no benefits to fall back on so my grandmother went door to door selling insurance. I remember that she said she used to draw a line up the back of her legs to look like seamed stockings as she couldnt afford it. Very few people had new furniture, it was handed down through the families, and many women made their families clothes. No luxuries at all, maybe a day trip to the beach on a charabanc with all the people from the same street.

My Grandad wasnt enlisted he failed the medical and sadly died of a massive heart attack a few years after the war ended he had his own buissness and my Grandma owned a shop so they were reasonably well off i think my step Grandad was enlisted though himse;f and his first wife lived in a council house [although i dont know wether they got it before or after the war]

I agree that very few single people rented a house. And single people who owned a house had usually inherited it from their parents.

My university halls in the early 2000s had shared single sex rooms.

My dad was born in 1941 and yes, he just lived in digs (lodgings) while jobbing around after leaving home in his late teens. He didn't settle in a home until he married my mum in 67

My dad was born in the early 60s and lived in lodgings until he moved in with my mum in the 80s. So very similar but 20 years later.
He talks about his landlady making soup/stew that changed colour throughout the week as more things were added to it.

The newspaper peeing as a routine thing doesn't ring true to me, either. If you didn't think a small child was going to make it to the outside loo, at a push you'd keep a pan handy. Newspaper on the floor would smell and would probably soak through. When I used to hear my DGM's stories of life in the East End 100+ years ago, I was generally struck by their ingenuity with what they had. People mostly weren't stupid or skanky

If you owned a house and it got damaged or destroyed, could you claim on your insurance?

Same for anything really. Cars etc...

They were paid, women had the jobs back home so we're also paid. I don't think many people had a mortgage. A large majority lived with parents and other family members, often in slums. The population was smaller. It was following the war the population grew, families were encouraged to have more babies which saw a baby boom and the government built lots of social housing following ww2 and knocked down slums.

Thanks for this thread - it's really interesting :) my grandfather fought in ww2, but didn't really talk about it.

My mum was a single unmarried mother in the 1960's which was rare and we always lived in bedsits sharing a kitchen and bathroom with the rest of the house of multiple occupancy. Our rooms had a sink. There was no double glazing and I remember rats scurrying about at night.
These were flats in Gospel Oak, million pounds homes now but in those days quite rough.
I can't really believe it now I have my own lovely home and career that we ever lived like that.

Should have added that of course neither pair of grandparents had a mortgage - they rented their houses. My mum's younger brother later bought the family home so my nan, by then widowed, had a home for life without worrying about rent or mortgage. He bought a small house of his own nearby - he had no wife or children, and a decent wage as a ship radio officer, so he could afford to.

My grandmother used to tell me that she went to the post office with a pass book each week to withdraw my grandfathers wages in cash (some was retained for him to use).
I was wondering how this worked - if everyone was paid in cash and your DH was thousands of miles away.