Land Girl - The Happiest Years of My Early Life

A Memoir of Service in the Women's Land Army 1939-46

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Joining Up – The Women’s Land Army

February 1, 2014 By LG-Admin 2 Comments

Women’s Land Army – How to Join

It was not all plain sailing. First I had to find out where to join. It turned out to be somewhere in the center of Liverpool. At the recruiting office I found Lady Denman, who had been put in charge of the WLA, and her office. Veronica and I did all this in the week after war was declared on the preceding Sunday. Today with the ease of gathering information in the comfort of your home through the Internet, we forget what a task that was 60 years ago. To accomplish what we did involved waiting around for buses or trams and taking slow journeys to ask people for information so we could sign up. I thought we were pretty smart about finding out what needed to be done.

Getting the Required Medical Certificate

The preliminary inquiries I made indicated we needed certificates from our family doctors that we were fit. I got my certificate from Doctor Smillie, an old Scot, who had known me from childhood, and therefore knew my home circumstances. I distinctly recall him encouraging me saying “it will either break or make you.” Without his faith in me I would not have received this certificate and the opportunity it opened up, for I had been a sickly child and often under his care.

A compelling Land Girl recruitment poster. It worked on me.

…and I did! You can see how attractive the uniform was, very flattering.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Filed Under: Chapter 2 - Joining Up - The Women's Land Army, Part One Tagged With: join up, Land Girls, Medical Exam, Uniform, Women's Land Army

Comments

  1. Julie Summers says

    May 19, 2014 at 4:39 AM

    What a wonderful and happy story of your life as a land girl. I am more than delighted to have read it and I hope you have had much popular feedback. Congratulations, especially, that you were presented to the Queen. What a proud moment that must have been. Julie

    Reply
    • LandGirls-Admin says

      June 6, 2014 at 8:41 AM

      Hello Julie,

      Happy to hear from you and thank you for your kind comments. They were wonderful years for me and I look back on them with much pleasure and pride. And yes, being presented to the Queen was a great honour.

      Regards,

      Jeanne.

      Reply

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About Me

Proud member of the Women's Land Army, Jeanne Flann, nee Harlow, here. Happily retired in Utah after a full and satisfying life that got off to a great start working as a Land Girl in the Trough of Bowland, you can read more about me.

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Book Outline

  • Introduction
  • Part One
    • Chapter 1 – Prologue, the Sullivans, the Harlows and My Childhood
    • Chapter 2 – Joining Up – The Women’s Land Army
    • Chapter 3 – Lancashire College of Agriculture at Hutton
  • Part Two
    • Chapter 4 – Lower Greenbank Farm Over Wyresdale
    • Chapter 5 – Holt Farm Gateacre – Tragedy & Deliverance
    • Chapter 6 – Marshaw, The Trough of Bowland Fells
  • Part Three
    • Chapter 7 – Epilogue
    • Chapter 8 – Recognition at Last
  • Appendix

All Sections

  • Finished for Now – Land Girls.Me a Memoir
  • Welcome to Land Girls
  • Appendix – The Bowland Fells
  • Recognition at Last For Land Girls
  • Epilogue – Life After Being a Land Girl in the WLA
  • Last and Best Assignment as a Land Girl: Marshaw – The Trough of Bowland
  • Second Assignment as a Land Girl: Holt Hall Farm, Liverpool – Tragedy and Deliverance
  • First Assignment as a Land Girl: Lower Greenbank Farm, Over Wyresdale

Land Girls Memoirs and Other Memoirs

In the two step process of creating a paper memoir and now converting it into a web based one, it is my hope that my memoir, Land Girl - The Happiest Years of Early Childhood joins other Land Girl memoirs as a member of that genre, and contributes to it.

My husband has his own memoir through the same process as mine, paper memoir first, then website GunnerFlann.com. He too hopes his memoir contributes to the National Service Memoirs genre.

Please let us know if you agree contact me.

Recent Posts From the Blog

  • Finished for Now – Land Girls.Me a Memoir
  • Welcome to Land Girls
  • Appendix – The Bowland Fells

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