So you've been called up. How do you keep your house?

[Kermit power]

I've no idea what started me thinking about this, but maybe someone on here will know the answer!

During WW1 & WW2, millions of men were called up to fight. These men came from all sorts of jobs and backgrounds, but it's fair to assume I think that many of them will have been the sole breadwinner in their family, and also that many of them will have been earning significantly more than the pay of a private soldier when they were called up.

So, this being the case, how did they and their families cope? Did the government pay their mortgages for the duration of the war? Did the banks just freeze everything until they came back?

All the history books and documentaries tend to focus on the heroics, but somehow the everyday stuff must've kept ticking along too.

[tubbystu]

I'd guess that most properties of the working man were rented in those times, and then the women went to work in the factories to replace the men increasing the households income and with rationing there was nothing to buy anyway.

[750turbo]

I assume mortgages were possibly not the be all, and end all in this era?

Even now, outside the UK, I am sure that the percentage of house owners is far less than the UK

It certainly was in a certain country I worked in for a few years.

I know await an absolute kicking

Edited by 750turbo on Saturday 15th August 19:34

[Rotary Madness]

Im pretty sure if you were a soldier you got paid a wage, just like today, so money gets sent home to pay the bills etc, or else there would have been madness.

[Kermit power]

Rotary Madness said:

Im pretty sure if you were a soldier you got paid a wage, just like today, so money gets sent home to pay the bills etc, or else there would have been madness.

I'm absolutely sure you're right on that front. I'm wondering about the sort of scenario where a successful lawyer or something gets called up. Even assuming he gets commissioned, his civilian pay would still have been significantly more than his Army pay.

Anyone still got relatives around who might know the answer from experience?

[Olf]

It's a good question and one I often wonder myself. I can only think of jury service being a modern day equivalent where you get a wage but it certainly won't match your 'usual' wage.

[phil-sti]

if called up in the TA they match your wage and pay u operational pay

[Kermit power]

Olf said:

It's a good question and one I often wonder myself. I can only think of jury service being a modern day equivalent where you get a wage but it certainly won't match your 'usual' wage.

Oh good man!!! I knew there was something that triggered the question, and that's exactly what it was. I was thinking that I'd be crippled by more than a few weeks of jury service, so wondering what would happen if it was months or years as it was in the war, rather than weeks.

[Dixie68]

Maybe there was a government ruling that assisted. I know that when I was in Iraq the American soldiers I was talking to were telling me that as soon as they hit a combat zone any loans, mortgages etc that they were paying had their interest rates dropped to something ridiculously low by act of U.S. law. And the Aussies were on an extra $100 Aus a day.
We however were on an extra £5 a day, still had to pay our council tax and had to buy our own boots if we didn't want our feet to rot.

[john_p]

In WWII my grandparents' landlord didn't charge any rent till the end of the war. In fact, he even refunded my grandmother's payments that she'd made after my grandfather volunteered.