Timeline 1939
Bedfordshire Women's Land Army > Timelines
June 1939
- First "Land Girl" volunteers signed up, by Mrs J. Dallas (First World War Women's Land Army (WLA) volunteer), and asked to wait to be notified of a farmer who needed their labour in Bedfordshire. (61 volunteers had to be transferred to other counties during the autumn, because of a lack of demand from Bedfordshire farmers for land girl labour).
Dorothy Hurren, aged 18, who trained at Midland Agricultural College, Sutton Bonnington, 5th September 1939. She did four weeks' training in poultry husbandry.
- 28 shillings (1.40p) a week pay (10 shillings less than the average farm wage at that time) for a 50 hour week (48 in winter).
- Bedfordshire Women's Land Army (WLA) headquarters office opened at 2 St. Paul's Square, Bedford.
- First "Chairman" of the County Committee: Mrs. Nora Whitchurch, of Great Barford House. Bedford Honorary Organising Secretary: Miss G.M. Farrar.
September 1939
Betty Fuller (top right), who served as a Land Girl 1939-1945
- Mr. H.J. Humphreys, of Eversholt, appointed by the Minister of Agriculture as unpaid Chairman of the Bedfordshire War Agricultural Committee, known colloquially as the "War Ag". Mr E.W. Russell is the salaried Executive Officer.
- War Agricultural Committee ("War Ag.") headquarters office: Phoenix Chambers, Bedford.
- Tuesday 5 September : First meeting of "War Ag".
Bedfordshire War Agricultural Committee's headquarters at Phoenix Chambers, St. Paul's Square, Bedford
- Bedfordshire War Ag. instructed by the Ministry of Agriculture to convert 10,000 acres of grass land into arable land.
October 1939
Pamela Edgeworth &
Matilda Shaw in training, threshing at Large Farm, Dean.
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times archive) 13 October 1939.
November 1939
- "All is not well with the land girls. Many of them left good jobs to undergo training and now find that farmers are unwilling to engage them. In Bedfordshire there is considerable scepticism about their worthPerhaps the land girls will come into their own later on, but there is no doubt that the scheme has been bungled and that some of the girls are bitter about it. For reasons of patriotism many have given up careers only to find that their services are not wanted." (Bedfordshire Times, 17 November 1939 p3).
December 1939
- Enrolled volunteers employed in Bedfordshire by end December 1939: 24. (The Women's Land Army (1944) p95).
The first land girl in the Luton district,
working at Offley Hoo Farm.
Luton News
Stuart Antrobus Historian/Author
Page last updated: 10th March 2014