Voices from the Great War Women's Land Army

Great War Land Girls were all very different individuals - they radiated vitality, resolve and determination. In this book, their sense of fun and infectious humour shines through the myriad of humorous stories and poems penned whilst doing their National Service. Amidst the troubling times they worked through, their ability to ‘stick it if it kills’ no matter what, earnt them a richly-deserved respect. Using previously unpublished photographs from personal collections that intimately depict the ups and downs of their daily lives, this book attempts to immerse readers in the quirky and unusual world of the Great War Land Girl and discovers exactly how they interacted, lived together, socialised, relaxed, fell in love, went off the rails and got through difficult times. The minutiae of life as a recruit in land organisations, (established early on in the war) and later in the Women’s Land Army, is vividly brought back to life through previously untold accounts. Ultimately, their legacy tells of unwavering devotion to duty and to the country they held dear. Land Girls broke new ground and turned their hand to any task that was asked of them with an inextinguishable wartime spirit. The attitudes and approaches they showed to their work when faced with such adversity remain inspirational more than a century later. Their forgotten testimonies are shared in this book. They fizz off the page as a true record of ‘I was there.’