FHS April 23: ‘The Soil Sisters’

FDHS  April meeting 2023

Nicky Reynolds: ‘The Soil Sisters’ - The Women’s Land Army in Suffolk 

Rat catching, farm labouring, and commercial logging are occupations that in normal times are dominated by men but twice in the twentieth century women from all social backgrounds stepped forward to do these types of work – during the Great War and the Second World War. In a meticulously researched and nicely illustrated talk to a good-sized audience, Nicky Reynolds shared her “obsession” with the history of the Women’s Land Army (WLA) in Suffolk.

Women, of course, have always played an important role in the countryside economy. On farms, women’s work tended to be seasonal (all hands needed for the harvest) and in aspects of dairy and poultry keeping. In 1916, with enemy U-boats disrupting food imports to the UK, the Ministry of Agriculture agreed to fund a new voluntary organisation to recruit women for emergency work on the land and so a “Land Army” was launched. Enticed by uplifting posters showing idealised images of farm work in sunny fields, 23,000 women signed up in the Great War and more than 80,000 in the Second World War. Though it caught the popular imagination, “Army” is a misnomer. While the workers were issued with uniforms, the WLA was a civilian not military organisation and the women were employed by individual farmers. Nicky illustrated her lecture with numerous slides showing Land Girls at work and off duty. The work was hard and the women were away from loved ones, but it’s clear that many experienced a sense of camaraderie. A structured training programme was available, with opportunities to progress to higher rates of pay as proficiency tests were passed.

Nicky’s talk concluded with an unsettling note: there was, she said, “no fairytale ending”. Too often women are not written into official histories and so it sadly proved for the Land Girls. It was not until 2008 that the contribution of members of the WLA and its sister organisation the Women’s Timber Corps, was formally recognised when the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued a badge of honour to the 45,000 surviving Land Girls and Lumber Jills. Some felt that this was too little too late. There is now a memorial statue at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. 

In conjunction with Suffolk Archives, Nicky and colleagues are fundraising for a permanent memorial to commemorate the WLA’s work in Suffolk. The project has already completed a digital roll of honour, tracking down some 1700 of the 2500 women who helped feed the country and ensure wood supplies for the war effort. This work is a brilliant example of “public history”, where through engaging with communities historians can help us reconstruct our local stories and sense of place in the world.  

Andrew Le Sueur