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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Prologue – The Sullivans, the Harlows and My Childhood

February 1, 2014 By LG-Admin Leave a Comment

Sullivan History

The antecedents of the Sullivans, who were also Catholic, are clear. Grandfather Michael was born in 1857, Mahoonagh, County Limerick, Ireland. He entered the Customs Service as a young man, and eventually became the Collector of Customs in Liverpool. With this post came a good income. Grandmother Catherine, was born in 1865 and her father Felix, born in 1827 was from Ballinamore, County Leitrim, Ireland.He came to England in 1849 and first resided in the Cleveland district of County Durham. At Stockton he married a Mary McNally. After marriage he started in business as a grocer and provision dealer in Darlington, County Durham. His business thrived and he became a prosperous and well regarded man, taking an interest in local and civic affairs. He was mayor of Darlington in the late 1800’s. For a Catholic in those days this was no mean achievement. He died in 1899 with wife Mary having died three years earlier.

The Sullivans and their children in a family portrait, 1900.

The Sullivan Family 1900, Grandfather Michael (1858) and Grandmother Catherine (1865) with their children.
From left back, boys, Myles Michael (1891), John Felix (1888), then girls, Mary Alice (1889), Kate Anne (1892), Monica Margaret (1897), baby James Patrick (1900) and Eileen Agnes (1895).

At the time of the marriage of Michael and Catherine in Darlington in 1886 grandfather Michael was serving as a customs officer in Middlesborough, he then served in Hull were John, Mary, Myles and Kate were born until around 1892, when he was transferred to Liverpool. They then lived in Egremont, Cheshire on the other side of the Mersey where mother Eileen, Monica and James were born. Next the Sullivan family moved to West Derby, Liverpool where Leo and Joseph were born. Of the nine children Myles aged 26 was killed in WW1 serving as a rifleman in the Liverpool Regiment in France, Kate died at the early age of 23, as did Leo aged 5 and Joseph at 18. Grandfather died at the early age of 59.

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Filed Under: Chapter 1 - Prologue, the Sullivans, the Harlows and My Childhood, Part One Tagged With: escape, Family History, harlows, Land Girl, sullivans, unhappy childhood, world war one veteran

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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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