Roll Call of Bedfordshire Land Girls
Monica
Audrey Cooper
Bedfordshire Women's Land Army > Roll Call > C
| Name | Cooper, Monica Audrey |
| Date of birth | 10 June 1927 |
| Born | Hitchin, Hertfordshire |
| Joined WLA | 25 April 1945 |
| Left WLA | 22 November 1946 |
| WLA No. | 156141 |
| Trained | [Not known] |
| Employed | Percy Thorne's Manor Farm, Wilstead and Walnut Tree Farm, Pirton, Hertfordshire. |
| Married name | Thorne |
| Further information | Former farm worker, aged 17. Transferred to Bedfordshire 21 April 1945. Demobilised. Audrey joined, aged 17, and did general and pig farming. During her time at Manor Farm, Wilstead, she met her husband-to-be, Pat Thorne and they became sweethearts. They had been married for 58 years when, on 21 October 2009, they were invited to join other former Land Girls and partners to have tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Audrey and Iris Cornell (nee Manning) were the two chosen to represent Bedfordshire land girls, together with about 90 others from around Britain. They were representing over 34,000 surviving former members of the Women's Land Army who were awarded Veterans Badges by the British Government in 2008 to commemorate their wartime service, previously unacknowledged. |
Pat and Audrey Thorne (nee Cooper) about to set off for tea with the Queen, 21 October 2009. |
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Stuart Antrobus Historian/Author
Page last updated: 4th September 2014