George Long - a Beckenham Fireman

George Long was born in 1892 and died in 1978. His granddaughter Rosemary Calazel, who now lives in France, kindly gave us copies of the pictures below. They are in two parts, some pictures of Beckenham fire brigade, and the World War One ration book used by George for his son Leslie, Rosemary's father, who was born in 1916.

You can click on a picture for a larger image.

With increasing restrictions on food supply and long queues for food, it may be surprising to know that food rationing was not introduced until Februrary 1918, a particularly dark time in the War, although from the dates at the back of the book it appears it had been contemplated for some months. The book below, showing individual pages with tear off tickets, is also marked with the names of two local retailers, Haggar and Booth.  A picture of Joseph H. Haggar's butchers shop can be seen on the Beckenham Village page. On the other side of the High Street was S.A. Booth's greengrocers store.