Bertram Benn - one of the many who helped to feed the nation

Bertram Benn, (known as Bert), was born in Moxley in Staffordshire in 1885, and was the eldest of ten children born to his parents John and Elizabeth Benn, who were both born in West Bromwich. His father John was originally a miner, but later became a tube socket maker.

In his teenage years Bert was a blacksmith, but by the time of his marriage to Martha Cooper in West Bromwich in August of 1908, he too had become a socket maker.

After several house moves to find better work, Bert and his family moved to Latchford in the middle of 1910 where he found work at Mostyn Tube Works, alongside the locks at Latchford. However, when WW1 started, he was sent to work at Irlam Steel Works, where his skills were required for the war effort. The family moved yet again for the last time in 1915, to Nook Lane in Latchford where he was later able to rent a large piece of land from Richmond's Gas Stove Company.

So Bert and Martha prepared the rented land, where they began growing their own fruit and vegetables in order to feed their growing family, which by now numbered two girls and four boys. The fruit and vegetable growing was followed by the erection of wooden sheds where chickens were kept, and where ducks and geese roamed around outside, making the family almost self-sufficient for their food.

When WW2 started in 1939, almost 70% of Britain's foodstuffs were imported, so the Wartime government implemented policies to increase food production including the "Dig for Victory" campaign. This didn't just involve the growing of potatoes and carrots etc. but included the keeping of rabbits and chickens (for eggs and meat).

Bert was not called up for war service as at the age of 54, he was above the conscription age, but he decided he"could do his bit" as it became clear that food rationing was on the way. So he applied for the necessary registration to keep chickens in large numbers, which enabled him to receive a ration of the meal and corn which would be required in order to feed them all. In return, he was required to forfeit the egg ration for his family.

Bert and Martha had large sheds erected which were soon filled with chickens, mostly a breed called Rhode Island Reds which were good layers. Thus the daily routine started of boiling up vegetable peelings in big tubs on the gas stove every day, much of it provided by the neighbours in return for a few eggs. This was then mixed with the bran from the wholesaler, along with a measure of Karswood Poultry Spice, a red powder that looked like chilli powder and which had a pungent spicy smell. This was given to increase the number of eggs laid by the chickens. All this food preparation for the livestock being done in the kitchen of Bert's small, terraced house.

Bert's daughter Clara feeding the geese.
When egg rationing did begin in 1941, all eggs produced were supposed to be handed over to the Ministry of Food, but of course, some were retained for the family's own use, and some to reward the neighbours. Care had to be taken not to retain too many, as the Men from the Ministry would know how many chickens were kept and would require a certain number to be handed over. But before the eggs were collected, they had to be washed and stacked in egg trays.

As Bert's granddaughter Margaret was the youngest member of the household, she was allotted this task, and from a very early age, she would hurry home from school each day, to begin washing the buckets full of eggs which had been collected that day from the nesting boxes, taking care of course not to break any. Then each Monday, a white van arrived at the house to pick up the scores of egg trays filled with eggs, and the driver would deliver empty trays for use the following week.

Hens lay an average of 180 eggs per year, but their laying season usually begins about April through until November. As the days shorten, the chickens would cease laying, and very few were laid in winter. As this time of year approached, it signalled the preparation for the culling of the majority of the chickens, which had to be plucked and cleaned ready to go into the food chain.

So the chickens were slaughtered, and taken indoors, where several of the neighbours would be sitting round the large kitchen table ready to begin plucking them, after which they would be hung up in the large garden shed, waiting to be gutted. All the feathers would be gathered up into sacks, which were collected by van, to go to make eiderdowns and pillows.

Then began the cleaning out of the insides of the chickens, again by the neighbours around the Benn's kitchen table, and again in return, each received a tasty bird for their family Christmas lunch. The cleaning out would continue for a few days, and all the chickens would be ready by mid-December to be collected by the Men from the relevant food department, to go towards the Christmas food chain.

The cycle began again soon after Christmas as Bert would borrow a handcart from the nearby farm and go to Latchford Station to collect boxes of day-old chicks, which he would care for until they began laying in the spring, and the cycle of egg washing began again.

This all came to an end in the early 1950s as Bert realised that rationing was coming to an end, so he stopped keeping chickens, gave up his allotment and moved away.

Sadly, no recognition was given to men like Bert, who worked so hard for so many years to "do his bit" helping with the war effort, whilst combining that with having a full time job.