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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

£1 in 1914 = £? in 2014


rosewlsg

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This is Money website: £1 in 1914 = £107.24 in 2014

Not dissimilar to the BofE calculator Peter FV features (his gave a 4.7 annual average inflation rate).

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  • 2 years later...

i have found out that a full colonel or possibly Brigadier general my grandfather was earning around £1500 a year.

these comparisons suggest this would be around £150000 to day. Would this not be far more than such a person 

be piad to day so is the system reliable

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Hello Christopher, and welcome to the Forum!

 

In 1914 the normal annual pay of a colonel was £800, and of a major-general £1,500.

 

In 2017 the average annual pay of a colonel was £80,000, and of a major-general £120,000. (Pay scales are now progressive with time in rank).

 

As previous posts have pointed out, there are various problems in selecting a single conversion factor - income and other taxes, the availability of foodstuffs, household goods etc - and also the purpose for which the conversion is required. Conversions based on house prices, for instance, will be more volatile than those based on retail prices.

 

Is is an old truism that, if you put the same question to any four economists, you will get at least five different answers!

 

A factor of 100 is probably on the high side, but anything over 80 would be a fair comparison. Please see my post 17 above.

 

Ron

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  • 1 year later...

Looking at the personal effects returned to next to kin. When mentioning a figure of £13 returned to the family and a gratuity of £6 sent after the war, it all seems so miniscule until you understand what it actually meant in terms of buying.Was £6 considered a fair amount? How were these gratuity amounts worked out?

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Hi EPAT,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

The cost of bread - Great Wishford, Wiltshire

image.png.fa499f879e36d2e0a2ae4978f209d81c.png

Image sourced from alamy.com

 

2 hours ago, EPAT said:

How were these gratuity amounts worked out?

In broad terms the amount of War Gratuity paid was a reflection of rank, length of eligible war service, and whether a man had served overseas. Forum Pal Craig (ss002d6252) did a lot of work on understanding the scheme. More info can be got from his site here 

 

Regards

Chris

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11 hours ago, clk said:

The cost of bread - Great Wishford, Wiltshire

image.png.fa499f879e36d2e0a2ae4978f209d81c.png

Image sourced from alamy.com

 

Bread was sold by the Gallon? http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2012/08/a-gallon-of-bread.html

 

Meanwhile you could go for a best of three in revaluing to present day - measuringworth, bankof england and this one https://www.moneysorter.co.uk/calculator_inflation2.html

 

Regards,

Peter

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Hi Peter,

 

Thank you very much for the link... Taking it on face value "...a gallon of bread (a little over a pound a day) was the basic ration for one adult for one week,".

 

If I've got it right, using EPATs war gratuity payment of £6...£6 = 1440d. The price of bread (1920) was 2s/8d per gallon = 32d. So the gratuity in EPATs case represented about 45 weeks of bread for a single adult. What price a life? Shocking!

 

Regards

Chris

Edited by clk
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Remember that war gratuity payments were made to all those who served, the payments weren't made due to the death of the serviceman. Dependents were potentially eligible for war pension support too.

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On 11/04/2014 at 16:47, trajan said:

We also know the costs of prostitutes

Really?

I'm only asking for an, ahem, friend...

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