Over 1 1/2 million American servicemen arrived in Britain from January 1942 onwards to help fight the war with Germany. Not surprisingly, there were frequent romances and relationships with local girls, many short-lived or...
‘At headquarters she was a number’, at the local level… ‘she becomes an individual’. ‘She is no longer W.L.A. No. 657085, she is Betty or Madge’. Vita Sackville-West, ‘Women’s Land Army’, p.15. The transformation...
This watercolour of a First World War Land Girl, entitled ‘Pack Drill’, comes from a sketchbook held in the collections of Carisbrooke Castle Museum. The former curator of the museum gave the sketchbook to...
In 1942, shop assistant Madeline Olive Thornewill joined the Women’s Land Army. She was 20 years old and lived in Newhall, near Burton-on-Trent. She remained in the WLA for 7 years, working in Buckinghamshire....
Gladys Louise West (nee Leech) April 1923 – March 2012 Life before the WLA My mother, Gladys Louise Leech was born in Tuebrook, Liverpool in 1923. A true city girl who probably hankered for...
Many thanks to Neil Bright, Blitz historian and author, for sharing the above postcard with me. If anyone has anymore information on this sketch, or others by the same artist, then please get in...
Violet May Edwards (nee Budd) was born on 22nd February 1929 in Winchmore Hill, North London. After working in toy, sweet, and metal box factories, as well as in a green grocers and as...
2019 marks 80 years since the Women’s Land Army – a civilian organisation run entirely by women – was set up for the Second World War. The 2019 series of monthly posts will focus...
As has become tradition over the past few years, this post looks back at 2018 and developments related to the history of the Women’s Land Army. Centenary Commemorations The First World War Centenary commemorations...
