After the first of July, distributed rations to attendants (8)
I believe the answer is:
janitors
'attendants' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'after the first of july distributed rations' is the wordplay.
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the first of july' becomes 'j' (1st letter of 'july').
'distributed' is an anagram indicator.
'rations' is an anagram of 'anitors'.
'j'+'anitors' is 'JANITORS'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for janitors that I've seen before include "Caretakers" , "They clean and maintain buildings" .)