Exchange Rates
From 1940, and through the war, although no longer on the Gold Standard, the £/$ rate had been pegged by the British government at $4.03, and in at the end of the war a world conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, decided on a variation of the Gold Standard.
Britain adopted this new system in December, 1945, maintaining the pound at $4.03 ... at which point the Americans sowed the seeds for one of Britain's biggest financial crises.
After immense pressure on the pound (and after nine months of continual statements that it would not happen), on 18 September 1949 Stafford Cripps devalued the pound by over 30%, giving a rate of $2.80
1967 saw another crisis in the British economy and Harold Wilson announced, in November 1967, that the pound had been devalued by just over 14%, resulting in an exchange rate of $2.40. This was the famous "pound in your pocket" devaluation, where Wilson tried to reassure the country by pointing out that the devaluation would not affect the value of money within Britain.
Free float from 1971
Rate of pay for National Servicemen 1957 4/6d per day.