Timeline 1941

Bedfordshire Women's Land Army > Timelines

January

"Please Come Back" An appeal from Women's Land Army (WLA) national headquarters to volunteers who had trained and begun with the WLA but left during the first 18 months. (The Land Girl, January 1941 (No.10, Vol.1) p8).

Hedging in north Bedfordshire.
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times Archive)

February

Mrs Whitchurch, Chairman of Bedfordshire WLA says, "The Ministry of Agriculture needs large numbers of women..."

March

National appeal in The Land Girl magazine for members to recruit other new volunteers.
New WLA minimum wage from 1 March 1941: 32 shillings (1.60p) (up to 48 hours a week) for land girl billeted off the farm; 16 shillings (80p) for land girl billeted on farm (plus free board and lodging), plus overtime pay (The Land Girl March 1941 (No.12, Vol.1) p8).

April

Nineteen Bedfordshire land girls completed one year's service; 21 have completed six month's service.

Swan Hotel tea party for Land Girls.
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times Archive)

Tea party for Bedfordshire land girls at the Swan Hotel, Bedford.
Forty volunteers transferred to other counties (explaining low employed figures for Beds WLA). Several recruits have been trained at Northamptonshire Agricultural Institute, Moulton.

Land girls in training at Moulton, Northants.
Northamptonshire Record Office

Seventy four subscribers to The Land Girl magazine (The Land Girl April 1941 (No.1, Vol.2) p11).

May

Bedfordshire WLA Tea Party on St. George's Day in Bedford arranged by Mrs. J.A. (Nora) Whitchurch & Hon. Organising Secretary, Miss G.M. Farrar. Over 50 land girls present.
Mr. H.J. Humphreys, Chairman of Beds. "War Ag" presented half-diamond chevrons (for armband) to twelve land girls who had completed 18 month's service; 2 girls received their 2nd. half-diamond, 2, their first half-diamond (a half-diamond chevron represented 6 months' service).
Miss Farrar is leaving the county. "Her cheerful manner and understanding ways will long be remembered."
Miss Bower, HQ Organizer from WLA national headquarters, spoke encouragingly to the girls and a warm welcome was given to Miss Lois Heydeman, the new salaried County Secretary (The Land Army May 1941 (No.2, Vol.2) p11).
Sixty land girls now working in Bedfordshire.
"I would not be without her," says farmer John Brown of Hill Farm, Great Barford, of land girl Jill Mortimer. "She had learned an amazing lot on her short stay. She should make a grand farm worker."

July

Interior of Harpur Street Girls Club
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times archive)

New mural paintings of Bedford riverside scenes on the games room walls of Girls Club in Harpur Street, Bedford admired by Mayor of Bedford and Mrs Tribe, organizer of the club (photo). Four artists are students of the Bedford Training College for Teachers - Miss Whidborne, Miss Drewett-Brown, Miss Killingbeck & Miss Bone. (This club to become the venue for Saturday afternoon club for land girls - see November 1941 entry.) (Bedfordshire Times, 18 July 1941, p10.)
HM Queen Elizabeth agreed to become Patron of the WLA (The Land Girl, July 1941 (No.4, Vol.2) p8).

August

Six Bedfordshire land girls attend the newly-approved training farm at Luton Hoo. The work of Miss Phyllis Chiplin (Land Girl 47099) particularly praised.
One hundred and two Bedfordshire subscribers to The Land Girl (The Land Girl, August 1941 (No.5, Vol.2) p11).

September

Dorothy Hurren with sheep dog Nell at Southill Park Home Farm

In the event of invasion: land girls encouraged to stick to their job and carry on but advice given on how to disable their tractors if in real danger of capture by the enemy (The Land Girl, September (No.6, Vol.2) p1).
Bedfordshire recruits, M. Davis & J. Davey, had been sent to Kent (The Land Girl, September 1941 (No.6, Vol.2) p11).

October

Miss Brasier, Bedfordshire land girl, wins 2nd prize in a national Land Girl photographic competition (The Land Girl, October 1941 (No.7, Vol.2) p5).

November

Bedfordshire Times, 28th November, 1941

Mrs. J.B.Graham (Chairman, Bedfordshire WLA County Committee) opened the WLA Club on Harpur Street, Bedford, 22 November 1941 and presented Good Service badges: 14 for 2 years; 2 for 18 months, 2 for 1 year, 21 for 6 months. Mrs Godber, herself a First World War land girl, had raised 42 through a dance and from friends to launch the club. (The Land Girl, December 1941 (No.9, Vol.2) p.13).
Open every Saturday afternoon 1 - 6 pm. for land girl "recreation and social intercourse". Facilities: games room, reading room, rest room, tea room, & kitchen plus dancing hall.
Bedfordshire "War Ag" had handed over four hostels. Mrs. Graham said she was confident the girls would find them ideal homes. (See February 1942 for first opening of these hostels. (Bedfordshire Times 28 November 1941 p.8).

December

Land girls who have already volunteered will be regarded as engaged in vital war work in relation to the new National Service Act, and will not therefore be "called up" to other work.
New issue of overcoats very much appreciated (The Land Girl, December 1941 (No.9. Vol.2) p13).
Minimum wages raised from 29 December 1941: 38s for 48 hr week (or 18s with free bed and breakfast) (The Land Girl, January 1942 (No.10, Vol.2) p5).
140 land girls employed in Bedfordshire (The Women's Land Army (1944) p95).

Cover heading for The Land Girl magazine, December 1942. Mrs Roosevelt, wife of the wartime American President, visits some land girls during a goodwill tour of Britain.

Stuart Antrobus Historian/Author

Page last updated: 10th March 2014