Description
Object description
British land girl with Women's Land Army in Cheshunt and Kings Langley, GB, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Hertfordshire, GB, 1923-1941: family; domestic chores; leisure activities; education; undertaking secretarial training; employment as junior post girl; visits to grandmother; Christmas celebrations; family holidays; relations with mother and father; charity for poor families in area; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; obtaining extra rations; German Air Force raids.
REEL 2 Continues: witnessing German Air Force bombing of London from distance; air raid shelters; food available in restaurants; reasons for applying to join Women's Land Army. Recollections of period as land girl with Women's Land Army in Cheshunt and Kings Langley, GB, 1942-1945: recruitment procedure; uniform; posting to Cheshunt; description of hostel; reaction to first night in hostel; work and duties on farms in Cheshunt area; hedging and ditching; thrashing; working at Cheshunt Park; duties; routine.
REEL 3 Continues: looking after bullocks; harvesting potatoes; duties at harvest time; working hours; rations; pay; lack of toilet facilities; driving tractor; ploughing; physical nature of work; opinion of farmer; driving tractor on road and minor accident; contact with Women's Land Army area representative; sharing bath water at hostel; rations; hostel social life.
REEL 4 Continues: socialising with Pioneer Corps; putting on pantomime; social life; applying to train as lorry driver and training in Hertford; driving test; posting to Kings Langley, 9/1944; accommodation; living conditions; coping with winter weather conditions; transporting Women's Land Army personnel to farms; duties; engagement; obtaining clothing for wedding; difficulties in obtaining release from Women's Land Army; VE Day and VJ Day celebrations, 1945; help from former employer to leave Women's Land Army; conscientious objectors working at farms.
REEL 5 Continues: presence of Italian and German prisoners of war working on farms; attitude towards Women's Land Army organisation; German V1 Flying Bomb raids; crash of United States Army Air Force aircraft near hostel; injuries to and deaths of friends and relatives; story of award of Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) to husband Flight Lieuteanant David Francis; post-war General Election, 6/1945; attitude towards period with Women's Land Army; question of whether contribution of Women's Land Army to war effort has been recognised.