The cataclysmic events
of World War II have
been exhaustively
documented, and still
reverberate around the
In a field of
world today. But a less
familiar story is that of
how Britain, stripped
of its able-bodied male
workforce, managed to
survive and provide
food for its people… their own
Words |Charlotte van Praagh
T
he recruitment
slogan read,
‘For a healthy,
happy job, join the Women’s
Land Army’. With millions
of men hundreds of miles
away, fighting in the war,
Britain was struggling for
labour, and the Government
was worried about food
shortages. It was time to call
upon the WLA – originally
formed in 1915 during the
Great War – to help keep
the country running.
For those inspired to signed
up, however (conscription was
later introduced, boosting the
numbers to over 80,000 by
1944) the reality wasn’t exactly
the rural idyll suggested. The
work was hard and dirty and the
hours were long.
The Land Girls, as they were
known, ploughed the fields,
dug up potatoes, looked after
animals, killed the rats and hoed
the earth for up to 50 hours a
week. And a lack of machinery
meant they often had to work
with old-fashioned equipment
such as horse-drawn ploughs,
and harvest crops by hand.
But while most people have at
least heard of the Land Girls –
they’ve been the subject of films,
TV dramas and even sitcoms –
they’d received scant official
recognition for their efforts until
December last year, when
DEFRA announced that the
surviving members of the
Women’s Land Army and the
Down to earth Doris Owen (then
Roberts) became a Land Girl at 16.
Women’s Timber Corps would
Days were long and most work
each be presented with a special
had to be carried out with old,
commemorative badge. back-breaking hand tools
Country & Border Life
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