Land Girls reap praise from PM

8:34am Wednesday 23rd July 2008

Comments (3)   Have your say »

Jessie Brown was just 18 when she left her office job to work on an Oxfordshire farm as a Land Girl during the Second World War.

Today, more than six decades later, the 84-year-old and dozens of other members of the Women's Land Army will be thanked at a special ceremony in Downing Street for keeping the country going while the nation's men went off to fight.

Mrs Brown, who now lives in North Oxford, recalled how she enrolled with the Land Girls in Birmingham in 1943 without telling her parents and soon found herself working from dawn til dusk on a 250-acre farm in Shotteswell near Banbury.

The change from city life to farm life was a big shock.

She said. "On my first day I was sent to a field of corn that had just been planted and told to keep the crows away.

"I remember writing to tell my family I had become a scarecrow.

"Then I had to go to the cowshed and start milking cows.

"I hadn't a clue what to do but the farmer just said pull and squeeze and with a bit of practice I got quite fast."

Mrs Brown described the little attic room she was given when she moved in with the farmer and his family as very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer.

She said: "I liked the animals but I couldn't say I was in love with a lot of the field work. I worked long hours and it was hard work - pretty gruelling now I think about it."

Jessie Parker (as she was) ended up staying at the farm until 1956, and met her husband-to-be John there.

The couple moved to London but then returned to Oxfordshire to live.

Now a widow, she has lived in the city for the past 20 years.

Today she will be joined at Number 10 Downing Street by fellow Land Girl Freda Castle, from Thame.

They are among 50 women to have been invited to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown and receive badges of honour.

Mrs Brown said: "It was wonderful to be invited.

"I was quite surprised. I didn't expect to get an invitation to No 10. The badge is quite an honour."

At its peak up to 80,000 Land Girls worked on farms to feed the nation during the war, many wearing uniforms of green ties and jumpers and brown felt slouch hats.

Meanwhile, the Women's Timber Corps, also known as the Lumber Jills, worked in the forests to provide timber for the war effort.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "The Women's Land Army and Women's Timber Corps worked tirelessly in the war years to keep this country going by providing food and supplies, and timber for the war effort.

"Their work was absolutely vital and it is right that we thank them now for their dedication in the service of their country."