by Dee Gordon
Thirteen War Ag committees were quickly established in Essex, additionally involved in recruitment, enlistment and administration. Lady Gertrude Denman accepted the role of honorary director of the WLA, with her magnificent home in West Sussex as the national headquarters, initiating a recruitment drive after the official formation of the new WLA in June 1939. This meant that, by September, when the call came for action, 1,000 volunteers were ready countrywide for immediate employment. The revamped Women’s Timber Corps followed in April 1942. Even the BBC’s Home Service was involved in recruiting, with broadcasts during the Farming Today programme.
It seems that Lady Denman personally chose women to chair the county committees, often women she knew through the Women’s Institute, having been the WI’s first national chairman. The committee members were all unpaid, and all chosen for their knowledge of country life and local conditions. Mrs R.E. Solly-Flood was appointed the county secretary for Essex, based at the county headquarters at the Institute of Agriculture, Writtle, near Chelmsford; and the county chairman was Olive Tritton from Finchingfield. The WLA was a voluntary organisation for the first two years of its re-formation, with civilians ‘employed’ by either the County War Agricultural Executive Committee (the War Ag), which housed them and arranged transport, or employed directly by farmers. Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) became the WLA’s patron in 1941.
Britain, unlike Germany, introduced conscription of women in 1941 for single women aged between 20 and 30, then dropped the age to 19 – the first nation in modern times to do so. (There were exemptions for pregnant women and those with children.) Women were then obliged to choose between one of the women’s auxiliary services, the civil defence, or the Land Army, with some civilian employments such as munition workers also available. A total of 17,000 chose the WLA at the outbreak of war, with as many as 80,000 joining up before its end. The number in Essex grew from 124 in 1939 (as milkers, tractor drivers, poultry girls and farmhands – plus another 160 on private farms or in training) to a peak of nearly 4,000 in the county, only just behind Yorkshire and Kent.
Girls in the WLA could work with animals, with crops, or could volunteer for training in pest extermination. There was also the option of the Timber Corps, which could involve working in saw mills, cultivating new trees, and felling trees for road blocks, ladders, telegraph poles or pit props, all of which were in short supply. Although Essex, as one of the coastal counties, was subject to the threat of air attack, this rarely seems to have been a deterrent!
The Land Girl was launched in April 1940, following the success of The Landswoman during the First World War. A few of the Essex Land Girls mentioned this, but as it cost 3d perhaps its purchase was not a priority, although it was a useful source of advice and information. (It also produced records of recruiting numbers, county news and a drive to raise funds for their very own Spitfire, a big ask, given that one such aircraft had a price tag at the time of around £5,000!)
Choosing the WLA
Parental pressure could take a hand here. Ellen Brown’s dad ‘was not keen on my joining the other auxiliary services’ but okayed her application for the WLA because ‘he didn’t think I’d pass the medical’!
Edna Green’s parents had similar concerns, with ‘strong doubts as to whether I could exist without the town life in which I had grown up’ in urban Romford. She joined the WLA later than most, at the end of the war, but was concerned that she would miss ‘the comforts of home, Mum’s cooking … and I knew that I would miss my elder sister terribly, but my mind was made up … I knew I had to get away, for better or worse. I had made a decision and I intended to see it through.’
Much earlier, at the outbreak of war, Joyce Willsher was working in the Kursaal at Southend-on-Sea when the entertainment venue had been commandeered to make army uniforms. Although she and her friend Lorna ‘enjoyed putting little notes of encouragement in the pockets of the uniforms, we decided we could do more’, and this prompted them to choose the WLA because the headquarters at Writtle was ‘convenient’ enough for them to make initial enquiries. Mary Page was also concerned about what was happening to her country, after experiencing air raids over Romford, and this was ‘the spur to my joining the Land Army’.
Edna Green (née Mead) in full uniform. (Courtesy of Braintree District Museum Trust)
A sense of duty also came into play for Elsie Haysman, who was ‘doing what my mum wanted. I felt an obligation as the eldest daughter.’ What she really wanted, however, was ‘to join the navy. My dad was a sailor.’
Having started the war in ‘a munitions factory in Chelmsford’ but ‘without the educational requirements’ to fulfil that same ‘dream of joining the WRNS [Women’s Royal Naval Service]’, Irene Verlander, then 19 years old, eventually settled for the WLA, ‘recommended by my friend Eva’.
Rita Hoy had already been ‘doing something of national importance’, in helping out at Ladygrove Woods near Writtle, mainly in the office, but getting her hands dirty by ‘organising the haulage of the pit props for their journey to Chelmsford Railway Goods Yard … I helped with peeling the bark, stacking the pit props … getting very black and hot.’ As she enjoyed the physical work more than the office work, she asked for a change, having heard about a ‘new venture, the Women’s Timber Corps’. This was a choice she made with open eyes, unlike some.
Although Vicky Phillips was in a reserved occupation with a bank and had been evacuated from Southend to Surrey at the outbreak of war, she wanted ‘to work outdoors, and preferably with horses’. So the WLA seemed the ‘right choice’ for her.
A love of gardening was what attracted Dorothy Jennings from Stratford, whose dad grew the family’s vegetables, whereas Joyce Theobald just wanted to get away from family disputes at home in London.
There were others who were simply attracted by the advertising. Doreen Morey from Poplar, East London, ‘saw the WLA recruiting office in Oxford Street and I was attracted by the pictures in the office and by the uniform, so I volunteered. I liked the idea of driving tractors and feeding chickens.’ An ‘attractive poster of a Land Army girl with a yoke’ caught the eye of Florence Rawlings from the East End, whose war experiences up until then had been pretty unpleasant ‘with the St John’s Ambulance and East Ham Hospital’ – that poster offered a whole new world to such as her. Another East Ender, Barbara Rix from Leyton, had a different reason: ‘Because I could join at 17, and I didn’t want to wait any longer’ (this was 1943).
Joyce Theobald (née Mumford) in full uniform. (Courtesy of Alan Theobald)
One 18-year-old, Kathleen Kellock, wanted to join the army in 1942, but her father ‘wouldn’t allow it’ as she had four brothers in military service; so she took on a boring job in a ball bearing factory in Chelmsford, until being ‘shot at by an enemy aeroplane’ and saved by being pushed to the ground. This affected her so badly that her doctor ‘recommended to her father that she transfer to the Land Army’ (See the Suffolk Review of autumn 2004). Similarly, Audrey Clarke’s fiancé did not want her to join the armed services as he was in the air force and thought they’d never see each other, so the Land Army was her second choice.
A few girls did have some farming experience. One was Iris Richardson, who had been ‘working the land’ in the Rochford area, a great improvement on her previous life as a ‘skivvy’. For her, the WLA seemed like a step upwards.
Generally, however, the girls did not join for the wages, which started out at around 28s a week, substantially less than their male counterparts on the farms. Brought up on farms in Canewdon and South Ockendon, Lillian Woodham was also used to farm work and had worked (like Iris) as a domestic. As she ‘didn’t want to work in the local margarine factory’ from 1939, and wanted to be ‘out of the firing line’, she too signed up for the WLA. Ivy Cardy had been brought up on a farm, with the WLA her ‘second choice’, her first choice having been the WRNS. Although Rene Wilkinson was another girl who had been ‘brought up on a farm, with pigs’ her reason for
choosing the WLA was less to use her experience and more to do with ‘being with my friends’.
Working ‘on a small holding from the age of 15’ gave Amy Rogers some insight into what she was getting into when she plumped for the WLA, while for Eva Parratt it was more to do with a love of gardening. As for Maude Hansford, she was descended from a line of farmers in Dorset, although herself a shorthand typist living with her family in Thorpe Bay, but as her family were ‘nature loving’ the WLA seemed the most appropriate choice.
Joining Up
Many members have little or no recall of their initial interview or medical, and it seems that many may not have even had a medical. Ellen Brown does, however, remember a ‘cursory’ medical undertaken by her own doctor in Leyton, East London, when she was 17 and ‘weighed less than 8 stone’. Kathy Firmin had a similar experience in South Woodham Ferrers. Because Elsie Haysman had passed her medical for the WRNS she ‘did not need another one for the WLA’.
Iris Richardson does remember an interview, however, ‘in Rayleigh, when I was 17’. Although the minimum age to join the Land Army was officially 17½, it wasn’t unusual for the girls to lie about their ages, reminiscent of the young men in the First World War. Edna Green was one of those who stretched the truth, admitting ‘I was 17 after joining’ which was, in fact, in 1947, when the WLA was still going strong in many areas, and continued to do so until 1950. Initially, Doreen Morey, having given her real age, was not old enough for the WLA and was offered, but turned down, the Timber Corps. When asked if she was willing to wait, and it was pointed out that she would be doing ‘threshing’, she agreed as ‘I knew nothing about farm work, and didn’t know what threshing was! I was “called up” six months later and in the meantime had a medical via my own doctor who just sounded my chest and tested my eyesight, declaring I was “okay to go”.’
Lynette Vince remembered an interview at ‘the recruiting office at Walthamstow, where I joined with my sister’ having travelled from their home in Wanstead. East Ender Dorothy Jennings wrote in her diary of an interview in Oxford Street on 25 May 1943. ‘There were lots of girls there. I was in there for two hours. She put down about my travel sickness. Tried on the hat.’ In August, she refers to ‘the telegram’ telling her to report for duty in Warley.
An interesting account of her interview was given by Margaret Penfold from the Chigwell area. She described ‘a bunch of women with fancy hats and Burberrys and posh voices querying why an office worker should want to work on the land’. Another East Ender who ended up in Essex was interviewed in Oxford Street by a lady with what she described as ‘a five pound note voice’.
‘My first attempt to join the WLA was at 16, and I was turned down, so went back six months later at 17, in 1941’ is Ivy Cardy’s memory. Irene Verlander joined up ‘at the Rayleigh office in 1943’. She was ‘offered a job in Wales’ initially, but withdrew her application until something nearer turned up! Amy Rogers’ nearest recruitment office was ‘at Bishops Stortford’ (Hertfordshire) and she recalls signing the forms there. This was where Maude Hansford also enrolled, having registered first at the Labour Exchange in Southend-on-Sea in 1939.
A more detailed account of her interview was given by dressmaker Gladys Pudney from Stratford, who had been working for a couturier making clothes for Princess Marina and debutantes – considered a luxury job. ‘I was interviewed at the Agricultural College in Writtle by a Mrs Melville on 15 June 1942. She assessed me and asked me what interested me. I remember saying I did not want to crawl around in the dirt in the fields, and Mrs Melville made a note …’, though perhaps to little effect.
Irene Verlander (née Hart) in uniform. (Courtesy of Linda Medcalf )
The cursory nature of many medicals was illustrated by Connie Robinson’s account. From Chadwell Heath, Connie ‘signed up with my older sister. We went to our doctor for an examination,’ but left feeling that ‘if you could breathe, you were in’. It was not uncommon for anyone who had a childhood health issue to lie about her background to make sure she got into the Land Army if this was her chosen path. Vera Osborne did this after failing a medical for the Women’s Air Force, having had tuberculosis in her hands and feet as an infant.
It was generally accepted (and detailed in Joan Mant’s book, All Muck, Now Medals) that if you turned up smart for the interview, you would be reminded of the nature of the work, e.g. cleaning out cowsheds dressed in dungarees and wellies.
Successful interviewees were subsequently presented with an enamelled brass badge, with a royal crown indicating the queen’s patronage, worn on a sweater or hat. The Timber Corps’ badge was similar, with the corn sheaf replaced by a fir tree, worn on their berets. Many of these badges survive.
All new recruits were asked to sign a pledge card, which read:
You are now a member of the Women’s Land Army.
You are pledged to hold yourself available for service on the land for the period of the war.
You have promised to abide by the conditions of training and employment of the Women’s Land Army; its good name is in your hands.
You have made the home fields your battlefield. Your country relies on your loyalty and welcomes your help.
Essex Recruitment
Interestingly, the Essex Newsman ran the following advert on 18 November 1939:
Women trained either at Agricultural Institutes or Farms are now available for engagement by farmers as milkers, pig men, poultry workers, tractor drivers, land workers and horticultural workers. All candidates personally recommended. For rates of pay, conditions of employment, etc. apply to The Secretary, WLA, New Poultry Station, Writtle, Chelmsford.
Similarly, one enterprising Essex Land Girl, Eileen Burrows (née Beswick), advertised her availability in Farmers Weekly. This was before demand exceeded supply …
The Regal Cinema in Bellingham Lane, Rayleigh, was one of a number of venues used during the war as an enlistment centre for the WLA. Many girls from the East End joined up at the busy recruitment office in Oxford Street, in the West End of London, and there was another in Walthamstow. Others were interviewed by county representatives, with one particularly important criteria emphasised (apart from physical stamina) – the ability to ride a bicycle.
As with the First World War, once the war had kicked in recruitment campaigns took place regularly throughout the county, with Chelmsford particularly prolific, as the county town of Essex. Such campaigns emphasised the attractions of the open air and healthy lifestyle, bearing in mind that this was a service where you could acquire a suntan, since stockings and skirts were not compulsory. However, no mention was made of the hard life, the low pay, long hours, limited holidays and unfair (compared to other services) rewards!
Nationally, over 20 million households in Britain were sent a National Service booklet in 1939, and this included a section appealing for volunteers for the WLA, with the option of working for a mobile force or for local work only.
Training
Training for Land Girls ranged from non-existent to comprehensive. Writtle, near Chelmsford, was the centre of much of the work of the Essex branch of the WLA. This housed the Institute of Agriculture during the war years, and women were given training courses in, for example, pest and vermin control, a crucial role given that one rat could eat 50kg of food in one year. One such trainee wrote of ‘threading worms by passing a strychnine thread through them to be used for poisoning moles. We had no protection and our hands soon developed sores.’
Other instruction included compost making, horticulture, poultry keeping, making hurdles (to stop aircraft landing) and vegetable growing. New science laboratories were utilised for lectures, and there was plenty of hands-on experience in the surrounding fields, or even in the front lawns, which had been ploughed up to grow vegetables. Written, oral and practical examinations followed the three weeks’ or two months’ training, dependent upon the course. There were also assessments based on their work output.
The 1943 exam paper for a qua
lification in ‘Pest Control and Poisons’ included such questions as:
Give three examples of how to trace the presence of rats.
If on the day after poisoning, you were accused by a farmer of poisoning a chicken, what would you say to the farmer?
In November 1939, the Henry Ford Institute of Agricultural Engineering at Boreham House was already providing training for WLA members in driving and caring for the large numbers of tractors destined to play a part in increasing the supply of home-grown foodstuffs. Boreham House, a twenty-four room mansion with 2,000 acres near Chelmsford, was owned by Henry Ford, employing more than 200 people growing sprouts, peas, cabbages, cucumbers, asparagus, tomatoes, wheat, barley, potatoes, and sugar beet, not to mention the 135,000 apple, plum and cherry trees and the cattle and pig farming operation. It became a training centre in 1937.
Students stayed in the institute or nearby cottages for a month, and Commercial Motor announced that the trainees were ‘keen and enthusiastic … with little or nothing to unlearn … they are sent out capable of doing a useful day’s work on any farm’. Around 150 women completed courses, which included such subjects as ‘the principles of gasoline engine carburetion’.
Boreham House trainees, with Maud Amess (née Martin) back row, fifth from the right, the only one identified. (Courtesy of Angela Burns)
By 1943 training farms had been established, and Mr Trenbath of Ravens Farm, Little Easton, organised a number of local farmers to train girls. Mrs Howard, of Kingston’s Farm in Matching, trained 190 girls who were employed on a total of 1,287 Essex farms. Hands-on training was available in milking, grooming heavy horses, ploughing, harrowing, tractor driving, hedging and ditching, and maintenance of farming machinery.