Feature: Don’t Delay – Enrol Today: The Women’s Land Army in Hampshire

First World War

Hampshire, pro-rata to its population, may have recruited more females to work on farms during the War than any other English county. A key contributor to that achievement was David Cowan, Hampshire’s Director of Education, who led council officials in encouraging potential recruits to come forward and devised four-week training programmes. Although the Women’s Land Army was not established until early 1917, Sparsholt’s Farm School was, in April 1915, perhaps the first land-based institution in the country to provide instruction. Between then and November 1919, thousands of females, taught at Sparsholt, other training establishments, or on specially selected farms, were employed in local agricultural settings.

Westley Farmhouse, Sparsholt (built circa 1870, demolished 1995) (Image: John Lander) The need to increase home food production became crucial when imports were disrupted by enemy U-boat action, and 2.5 million more acres of land for cultivation were required to offset the expected losses. Female farm workers undertook an extensive range of jobs; around half were engaged in dairy activities, and others worked on farms growing fruit and vegetables, and still more provided care for livestock. Quite different duties were assigned to Women’s Land Army members in Romsey where a Horse Remount Depot, one of just three in the country prepared, by the end of the War, well over 350,000 horses for transfer to France from the port at Southampton.

To manage and supervise land workers, and to deal with many organisational matters, several prominent Hampshire women were appointed. One was Lady Laura Chute who, despite having other important roles, chaired the “hotels” committee that was responsible for sourcing accommodation; large houses for conversion to hostels, rectories and private homes, and farms suitable for billeting purposes.

Controversially, a minority of Hampshire farmers were reluctant to employ females; in 1916 one said he ‘would rather give up his land than employ female labour’, and another complained that women would ‘run off home when a shower of rain came.’ Others doubted whether they were physically capable of operating ploughs, and tractors that were gradually being introduced to replace horses. Objections lessened as the War progressed, which was just as well as demand for women and girls frequently outstripped supply.

When the War ended, many remained on Hampshire’s farms, some acquiring their own smallholdings, while others went abroad. While advice and guidance were provided to aspiring owners of small businesses, the onset of Britain’s severe economic recessions from the early 1920s until the mid-1930s, made a substantial number unviable and resulted in ambitions to enjoy work in an outdoor environment being dashed.

Second World War

The Second World War began in September 1939. The Women’s Land Army had been re-formed three months earlier, and with additional land for cultivation urgently needed again, Hampshire was in the forefront of recruiting large numbers of “land girls”. Around half were employed as “milkers”, one-third were “field workers”, and the rest worked in such areas as “market gardens” and “Tractor Driving”.

Tractor driven by a land girl at Hampshire Farm Institute, Sparsholt (Image: John Lander) In addition, there were “Foraging” and “Forestry” sections, the latter having a significant presence in the New Forest. Accommodation for many land girls was provided in around twenty hostels around the county, where strict rules were imposed, while others were billeted with householders, or with farmers themselves. One of the largest houses that became a hostel in 1942 was Redenham House, five miles northwest of Andover, which accommodated up to 100 people.

Redenham House, built 1794 (Image: John Lander)In addition to those who performed day-to-day farm work, there were Hampshire women who devoted time and talent to organising the huge number of necessary tasks. Notwithstanding twenty-five years between the start of the two world wars, one who took a leading role in both was Pauline Woolmer White. Her fiancé was killed in the First World War fighting in mainland Europe, and that event seemed to galvanise her resolve. From the start of the Second World War, until the Women’s Land Army was disbanded, she was involved in all aspects of its administration. She prepared guidance notes for selection committees, organised recruitment drives, chaired committees, and became “Chairman” of the Hampshire Women’s Land Army in July 1942. In May 1945 she received a Gold Certificate from the Minister of Agriculture.

Despite enormous recruitment efforts, there were often shortages of land girls, eventually eased by employing workers on a part-time basis, prisoners of war from seventeen camps around the county, and school children during their summer holidays. From 200 land girls on Hampshire’s farms in November 1939, the number increased to over 1,000 by December 1941, to 2,611 by the end of 1943, and rose for another year before falling to around 1,500 in May 1945. When the War ended, the main celebration of the contributions made by land girls in Hampshire was a Thanksgiving Service in Winchester Cathedral on 15 August 1945, attended by nearly 1,000 people.

Women’s Land Army members were still needed after 1945 to support the Government’s “FOOD COMES FIRST” campaign, for which Hampshire had a strap line “The War is Over, but the Battle for Food goes on”. The Mayor of Portsmouth appealed for 200 more land girls in 1947 as additional labour was necessary when fewer men than expected returned to their previous jobs, and former prisoners of war returned to their home countries.

Tom Williams, Minister of Agriculture, to the dismay of many, announced that the Women’s Land Army would be demobilised on 30 November 1950. The main national farewell event took place a month earlier in the form of a procession of 500 land girls, including a contingent from Hampshire, and led by the band of the Irish Guards, to Buckingham Palace. There the Queen told them that ‘the girls had obeyed the call of duty in the nation’s hour of great peril, and Britain owed them an everlasting debt.’

That may have been so, but the Women’s Land Army has long been regarded as a “Cinderella Service”. Land girls had been excluded from a gratuities and benefits scheme that applied to other women who had given dedicated wartime service. Furthermore, it was 2000 before former land girls were invited to march past the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, 2008 before they received commemorative badges, and October 2014 before a memorial statue was unveiled at the National Arboretum at Alrewas, Staffordshire.

Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps Memorial (Image: John Lander) It is to be hoped that the 75th anniversary of the disbandment of the Women’s Land Army will be marked in such a way that the universal saying, “We Will Remember Them”, applies equally to land girls as to all those who faithfully served the nation. Don’t Delay – Enrol Today, (price £15.99 plus £2.10 postage) is intended to shed light on their valuable work, and can be obtained from John Lander – jandplander@btinternet.com.