Women pull farm equipment in a field during World War I, in Oise, France, in 1917.
Poster for the Women’s Land Army - usually referred to as ‘Land Girls’
The Land Girls when known by their official name were called the WLA (Women’s Land Army) but they are rarely known by that name. Most people remember them as 'Land Girls’ - fresh-faced, hard working women who served their country in agriculture in both World War I and World War 2.
The British government knew that their involvement in World War 2 was inevitable and faced with the possibility of being isolated, they knew that Britain would need to produce more of its own food.
That and the need to send men working on farms off to serve their country in the military led to the reformation of the Women’s Land Army, thereafter usually called The Land Girls in June 1939.
Lady Denham became the honorary head of the Land Girls but it was probably the one organisation which needed little in the way of organisation, having already worked so well in World War One.
It needs to be acknowledged that many of those who served in the Land Girls were already farm girls or already lived out in the countryside. Only about one third of its membership came from the cities, but they were a significant number.
Ther job of the land girls was to slot into the jobs traditionally done by men on the farms.
The Women’s Land Army also had successful counterparts in the USA and Australia. They were also lovingly called Land Girls there as well.
Women’s Land Army tractor mechanics training at Wye Collge, Kent | Museum of English Rural Life
Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans Picture No 10583045
Women’s Land Army in action, 1939
Land Girls following a tractor drawn potato digger, gathering produce before it can be affected by frost.
Mary Evans/Robert Hunt Collection Picture No 10282884
Land Girls WWII
Land Girl, Lin Gapp, a former secretary in a cosmetics laboratory, is
protected by a ground sheet from rain as she drives a tractor on a farm
during World War II
Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans Picture No 10645141
Land girls in training 1939
Ploughing practice, her first solo trip on a tractor, determined to make
her first furrow straight. If she can already drive a car she would
not find it difficult to , but starting the engine is another matter.