大象传媒

[This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Radio Cambridgeshire on behalf of Frances Walls and has been added to the site with her permission. Miss Walls fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.]

I was in the Land Army. I took after my father who had been a groom, and loved animals. I was sent to Bristol first of all. It was a large farm with 200 head of cattle and we had to milk them all by hand. There were still some men there and they put me in charge of the young stock. We sat on the boundary of four counties so I had a lot of trouble getting a ration book. Each place said I wasn鈥檛 in their area.

The farm took a direct hit with a bomb, being near Bristol, and most of the cattle were killed. I had to bury the dead cattle. There was one left alive in a hedge and when I tried to get it out, it went for me鈥t was so frightened. It took six men to get it out.

After the bomb, I was sent to Cambridge. There were about 26 of us 鈥� we all had to meet up at Victoria Station. When we were on the train, going past fields, we passed cows and I said, 鈥淲e鈥檒l soon be milking them.鈥� Some of the girls who were from London said, 鈥淎re they cows? They鈥檙e big!鈥� When we got to Cambridge, they gave in their notice. It was a pity because there were other jobs they could have done in the country, apart from cattle.

At first, I worked for Dr Houghton and lived at her house in Adams Road. She had asked for help with her two home cows and some other small animals but there wasn鈥檛 enough work so she found me a job at the University farm nearby. It was where they trained students to be vets and they had to learn to use the old-fashioned equipment as well as the new stuff.

The calves were taken away from the cows at two days old and it was my job to rear them, as well as orphaned pigs and lambs. We also did the milking and lots of the girls got 鈥榢icked out鈥� by the cows. But I was taught how to hold the cow鈥檚 leg - here [under the armpit]. We used to cut up the turnips and parsnips for feed, and had sharpening wheels for the knives.

You had so many different jobs. If you were muckspreading, you had to follow the horse and cart around and shake out the clumps and spread it about. When the corn was cut, you had to spread it out to dry first, before it could go through the threshing machine. It was old fashioned, not like the big machines now.

You used to pile the hay into ricks but when you took the hay away to use it, the rats would be nesting in there and the Land Army girls used to have to kill them. You put elastic around your ankles to stop them running up. Some of the girls wore shorts - you weren鈥檛 supposed to but it was out in the country so no one said anything.
I still have my Land Army tie- it鈥檚 all worn out now. I wore it for a long time because I was in the Land Army for all of the war and they didn鈥檛 give you new ones.

Dr Houghton took in refugees; we all lived in her house. When the war ended, I got a job at the King鈥檚 College Choir School which was just along the road. I stayed there for 28 years.

I hadn鈥檛 grown up with my family - I grew up in a children鈥檚 home. My father was killed in the First World War. My mother had 9 children and couldn鈥檛 keep all of us. My sister was 13 or 14 and was looking after us but the Stepney Board of Guardians [East End of London] thought she was too young. They took us away. I was only 3 months old鈥� but we all kept in touch over the years.

I never went to school because I had bad anaemia. You didn鈥檛 have a choice where they sent you after the Home - I worked in the laundry at a convent. From the convent, I went to a mission in the East End [of London] and when war broke out, the cook said to me, 鈥淛oin the Land Army, and get away!鈥� I never regretted it鈥� I loved animals.

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