Timeline 1942

Bedfordshire Women's Land Army > Timelines

January

D. Hayward (WLA 12933) wrote to the Land Girl magazine about her work in tomato growing in a very large nursery in Bedfordshire (8 acres of glass, 187 feet long; 52 tomato houses with 2,500 plants in each, plus 4 glasshouses for cucumbers) (The Land Girl, February 1942 (N.11, Vol.2) p11).

Hilda Bright from Bedford, served at Milton Ernest hostel

February

16 February 1942: Milton Ernest hutment hostel opened under the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) Warden Miss (Felicia) Taylor. "Despite severe weather everyone has stuck to the new work manfully." (The Land Girl, April 1942 (No.1, Vol.3) p11).

First intake of Milton Ernest hostel land girls, Harpur Street, Bedford.
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times Archive)

March

"Farmers should give as long notice as possible of their labour requirements and they should be prepared to train their own women if this is at all practicable": letter sent to the National Farmers Union from the national Women's Land Army (WLA) HQ. No trained volunteers are unemployed. (Bedfordshire Times, March 1942 p4).

April

Cover drawing from The Land Girl

Miss Read, Luton District Representative, had arranged for a Land Army contingent to take part in a Warship Week Parade.

May

Land girls dining at the new Milton Ernest hostel, 1942
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times Archive)

"Hard Work and Good health" article and photographs (canteen & dormitory) of land girls at the new Milton Ernest hostel. 40 "healthy and weather-tanned" girls from Beds and London had a visit from Miss E.W. Moore from the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) headquarters. (Bedfordshire Times, 29 May 1942 p6).

June

Cover drawing from The Land Girl

Third hostel planned, close to Whipsnade Zoo for 16 volunteers (see February 1943).
Bedfordshire has 180 "Land Girl" magazine subscribers. (The Land Girl, June 1942 (No.2, Vol. 3) p13).
4 June 1942 Leighton Buzzard hutment hostel for 40 opened (second YWCA hostel in county for land girls). Warden: Miss Whipp (to the right of the cook - in white - in the photograph).

Leighton Buzzard hostel group

"Twenty-eight Land Girls took part in the United Nations Day Parade in Luton on Sunday, the 14th June; they looked very smart and marched well." (Bedfordshire Women's Land Army newsletter, July 1942)

July

As part of "War Work Campaign", sixteen land girls present a pageant at Granada Cinema in Bedford, Sunday 19 July 1942 Bedfordshire (The Land Girl, August 1942 (No.5, Vo.3) p12).

Part-time Land Corps workers
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times Archive)

Bedford Women's Emergency Land Corps formed of women who volunteer to work, part-time, for a minimum of forty eight hours on the land. Recruits drawn from housewives, shop assistants and women in other occupations who work all day long but are willing to spare one or more evenings or on half-days off to do spare-time work on farms. Collect by lorries from the Corn Exchange at 6pm by the "War Ag" and returned after work. (Beds Times 24 July 1942 p13).
"Yesterday...interviewing recruits for the Land Amy. We are opening new Hostels and applications from girls are coming in fast." Erica Graham, letter of 19 July 1942 (BLARS, Graham Archive)
American visitor, Mr MacFarlane, a guest of farmer Joseph Godber of Willington, who has six land girls working there, praised the Land Army, speaking at the Land Army Club in Bedford. "You can take it from me that the Land Army is doing a good job of work - the best of all the women's services, I think with less hullabaloo and less publicity than all the others". (Bedfordshire Times, 31 July 1942 p6).

American visitor praises the Land Army
BLARS (Bedfordshire Times archive)

August

Bedfordshire WLA has contributed 40.3s.0d to the Land Army "Spitfire Fund" (5,691. 5s. 10d raised nationally, which enabled the RAF to buy the first Typhoon fighter plane, called "The Land Girl" and featuring the WLA badge), (The Land Girl, March 1944 p4).
Miss Read, Luton, arranged for a group of land girls from South Beds. to march in the Luton parade, 2 August 1942, before Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey (The Land Girl, August 1942 (No.5, Vol.3) p12).

September

Land girls in uniform to be admitted to canteens run by the Council for Voluntary Work in Bedfordshire (previously excluded). (The Land Girl, September 1942 (No.6, Vo.3) p7).
Mr. Wallace Covington grows 23 acres of flax on building land near Bedford, to help make up for the previous imported supplies from the Balkan states now no longer available. Harvested by part-time schoolchildren and housewives. (Bedfordshire Times, 11 Sept 1942 p3).
Mrs. Erica Graham, County WLA Chairman, of Elstow Lodge organises a Harvest Home outing for land girls, with tea at Whipsnade Zoo, Saturday 26 September 1942.

October

Bedfordshire WLA HQ has moved to 43 Harpur Street, Bedford (Tel. 2937), almost opposite the new Telephone Exchange, and next to the Potato Board Office (The Land Girl, October 1942 (No.7, Vol.3) p12).

November

Mr. R.S. Hudson, Minister of Agriculture

BLARS (Bedfordshire Times archive)

Minister of Agriculture, Mr. R.S. Hudson, visited the county on Saturday 14 November 1942 and praised the farmers for their increase in arable land acreage. He inspected land drainage schemes. (Bedfordshire Times, 20 Nov 1942 p4).
Two new land army hostels opened at Bolnhurst in the north (hutments for 40) and Kensworth House in the south (requisitioned house for approximately 40), plus a new training hostel for four week courses at Toddington Park in mid Bedfordshire. Ministry of Information films have been shown at the two hostels so far. "War Ag" officers held a "Brains Trust" evening at Leighton Buzzard and Milton Ernest hostels. (The Land Girl, December 1942 (No.9, Vol.3) p12).

Cover drawing from The Land Girl

December

Vera Roberts and her fellow land girl, Ella Green, tackle rats on a Bedfordshire farm
(February 14-16 1946 Rally and Exhibition Souvenir Programme, p16)

"War on Farm Pests" article on how good crops are ruined by rats and on the War Ag's active policy of extermination against rats, sparrows, squirrels and other vermin, plus mice and voles in market gardening. (Beds Times 25 December 1942 p4)
"Women's Land Army Party" arranged by Bedford WLA Club for 250 Bedfordshire land girls, Saturday 19 December 1942, at the Dujon Caf, Bedford, plus inauguration of the nation-wide Women's Land Army Benevolent Fund. Cheque for 23 donated by Beds land girls. Recently-formed Milton Ernest hostel choir (under Miss Prowse of the BBC) entertained, and three local airmen. Mrs. Godber's "Welfare Fund" provided for party. (Bedfordshire Times, 25 December 1942 p7).
Four hundred and ninety two land girls employed in Bedfordshire (The Womens Land Army (1944) p.95).

Stuart Antrobus Historian/Author

Page last updated: 13th October 2016