Reading through the official documents and personal accounts of the so-called Great War, what becomes clear is the all-consuming importance of food, for those at home and for the troops on the front line. In fact, food was a national preoccupation to the point of obsession. The reasons for this are, however, a far cry from the excesses of modern times.

Before and during the war, Britain relied heavily on food imports, particularly from the US and Canada: in fact it produced only one fifth of the wheat it consumed. So when the enemy U-boat attacks on merchant ships destined for Britain began in 1917 in an attempt to starve us into submission, stocks were swiftly reduced to a mere three weeks' worth, and there were fears we would run out of food altogether.

At one point 250,000 tonnes had been sunk. So a campaign urging people to caw' canny began; growing-your-own and eating local became buzz-phrases, just as they are again today. Almost 50,000 acres of Scottish land were taken for food production.

The Government had previously adopted a hands-off approach to food production and consumption, but was forced to introduce voluntary thrift campaign when prices rocketed by an average 32 per cent. A comparison between 1916 and 1917 published by the Board of Trade Labour Gazette showed potatoes had more than doubled in price, triggering a campaign for people to use alternatives such as turnips and carrots.

Cheese and eggs had increased in price by 45 per cent, meat, bacon and butter by 35 per cent, flour, milk and sugar by 25 per cent, bread, margarine and fish by 18 per cent, and tea by seven per cent.

Scotland played a significant and proactive part in the voluntary campaign, even if it wasn't wholly successful. While the better-off could afford to pay higher prices on the black market, some hoarded stocks, while the poor suffered from starvation. Long queues at the shops were as common as they were often unfruitful.

Among the papers left by Miss Dorothy Melvin, principal of the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science (GWSCDS) from 1910 to 1946, a fascinating memorandum has been found by Carole McCallum, archivist at Glasgow Caledonian University.

It was written on April 6, 1917 by Dr Douglas Chalmers Watson, the renowned nutrition expert and senior physician at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. This original document is entitled The Food Economy Campaign (Scotland), and it sets out his suggestions for developing the Patriotic Food League (PFL), the "voluntary self-restraint" scheme he had directed in Scotland from August 1915 on behalf of the Food Controller Lord Devonport and the War Savings Committee in London, but which was now to be wound up to make way for the new national scheme.

The Food Economy Campaign was, in effect, a precursor to food rationing, introduced in January 1918. By that time people accepted it, because it was seen as more democratic. By the end of the war nearly everything eaten or drunk by 40,000,000 people was controlled.

Interestingly, the PFL was founded because, in the words of its chairman Lord Salvesen, "the British race were the most wasteful that ever existed on the surface of this globe". That included the soldiers' camps and the Navy, but "the private waste that went on in every household was something that no government could cope with". Just 1d less per head spent on food each week could save around £9m. Thrift was therefore a patriotic duty and a test of loyalty to the King. However, since the Scots were already accustomed to being credited with being frugal and thrifty, "a man who went forth to preach economy in Scotland naturally provoked some resentment".

Dr Chalmers Watson started his memo by re-emphasising the fundamental aims of the PFL, namely that "(1) People have to be convinced of the necessity for eating less food; and (2) They have to be shown how to do it". He recommended that a properly funded extensive educational campaign would henceforth be necessary, and that the deployment of the resources of Scotland's three colleges of domestic science was fundamental to its success.

He wrote: "The suggestions and recommendations given are based on the results of the experience of the work of the Patriotic Food League (Scotland) which came into existence for the same purpose as the present campaign. Many branches of this were established throughout different parts of Scotland, from Aberdeen to Dumfries." This took place under the auspices of the Lord Provosts or Provosts and an influential committee.

But the 500,000 PFL pamphlets sold throughout Scotland and England had "not much more than skimmed the surface of the problem".

A vital element for the new Scheme for Scotland, he said, was that maximum possible use be made of the "three great training schools in cookery in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, as they supply trained cookery teachers to the education authorities in different parts of the country".

He went on to recommend that a sum of £5,000 be applied for to

disseminate the campaign throughout Scotland; after all, London had already had additional money granted on account of its "equitable variations".

"Fife, with its population of 270,000 and a large number of trained cookery teachers in employment of the Secondary Education Authorities, might have an efficient campaign started and finished within two to three months," he wrote, "but there are very few counties so well provided with cookery teachers. In some with a large population there may be only one or two cookery teachers available."

Presumably Dr Watson got his wish, for the Food Economy Campaign (Scotland) began that very same month, he was appointed its director, and the governors of the colleges of domestic science in Edinburgh and Glasgow were represented on the committee.

Special war cookery classes were given by both colleges in the east and south-east, and west and south-west respectively and eventually throughout the country.

The (Glasgow) Bulletin of March 31, 1917, reported that "Mrs Waldie, head teacher at Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science gave an interesting demonstration of food saving at the College. She said that home baking was a great economy at the present time. Split peas, lentils, haricot beans, barley, rice, maize and rye can be used to supplement flour in baking."

Her recipes included barley loaf, turnip scones and carrot pudding. Potatoes were in short supply in Scotland, which became reliant on consignments from England. But on April 28, 1917 the Glasgow Herald complained that the agreed volumes were being reneged on.

A special Economical Food course open to all teachers in the West of Scotland was given in 1918 by Mrs Waldie and Miss Watson - of the Edinburgh College - after their return from training in London under the auspices of the Ministry of Food. Mrs Waldie was released from the Glasgow College to do work in the south-west of Scotland under the National Kitchens Division of the Ministry of Food. However, in a bid to mitigate the bad attendance at classes by "the poorest of the population", classes were given in the kitchens of "working-class housewives" in Calton, Garngad, Hutchesontown East and West, Govan and Partick.

Meanwhile it had been recognised that boys had to be taught how to cook before they went to war, and special three-week cookery courses had begun at the "Do' School" - Glasgow's Domestic School - in 1915. In 1917, a total of 174 soldiers learned from Mrs Waldie's Collection of Economical Recipes Suitable for War Cookery how to make liver soup, pluck soup, or ox-cheek ragout - so very trendy in top restaurants today, though at 1s 3d for 9 persons the cost would ­startle those paying today's Michelin-star prices.

A letter from Brigadier General FC Gilpin of the Scottish Command HQ in Edinburgh, to the Honourable Secretary of the College of Domestic Science, Glasgow, dated February 20, 1916, reads: "I saw the soldiers' cookery classes ... and the very patriotic assistance which they have rendered.

Already a number of these soldier cooks have … been sent overseas where their services are much appreciated." Those soldiers unable to attend classes were sent a copy of the Glasgow Cookery Book, first published in 1910, to offer guidance.

Its usefulness on the front line however must be questionable, given the logistical challenges of feeding the troops in the trenches.

With thanks to Carole McCallum, archivist at Glasgow Caledonian University.