Land Girl: Cynthia Clarke (nee Linford)

Land girls have not been forgotten despite the fact that the Second World War ended 70 years ago and those few who are still alive are now aged around 90. A village history display in St Leonard’s Church at Old Warden, Bedfordshire, on 20 & 21 June 2015, included a small display about Cynthia Linford (the late Mrs Cynthia Clarke) arranged by her daughter Angela Little. Cynthia was the daughter of a gamekeeper on the nearby Whitbread estate and so had the advantage of being already a country girl. She was a clerk, aged 17, when she joined the Women’s Land Army in July 1944 and served until April 1946.

Report and photos courtesy of Stuart Antrobus, with thanks to Mrs Angela Little and local author Christine Hill.

Cynthia Linford in her land girl uniform. She worked at Abbey Farm, Old Warden and was one of those few land girls who were able to work from home, which was at Southill, Bedfordshire. After the war she married and became Mrs Clarke.