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My Life as a Land Army Girl
I served in the Land Army and was sent to work in
Lincolnshire working on Hackonby Fen potato and sugar, beet picking,
Hay making and stacking, and it was very hard backbreaking work and I felt like giving up. But I was afraid of upsetting my parents.
But I was able to take home food so the family was well fed.
When I came home on leave I used to bring eggs, chickens, peas, potatoes and at Christmas a joint of Pork.

Yanks, Spam and Nylons
The Americans were very kind to us they gave us gifts of tins of spam, sweets and nylons.
When my mother saw the nylons she was very cross and
asked me what I had done to get nylons and had I brought
disgrace upon family name? I received a letter from my father and he said my mother was wearing the nylons and she looked very nice in them!

Returning Home to find part of Peabody Avenue bombed
The farmer who employed me told me one day that my home in Pimlico at Peabody avenue had been bombed. I immediately decided to go home and the farmer very kindly arranged for me to take home a sack of potatoes and peas for my family, who were living on very short rations at the time. The farmer with whom I was billeted had two rabbits for me to take home. I managed to get my sack food back to London on the train home. I couldn’t really use the tube so I caught a number77 bus from Kings Cross to the Strand. The bus conductor was very kind as he allowed me to stay on the bus to Victoria after the journey had officially finished. The bus was on its way back to the garage and the driver kindly allowed me to stay on the bus with him so that I could catch the 24 bus home with my huge bag of food. When I finally arrived home I was expecting a warm welcome but didn’t receive one. My mother said to me, ‘Why have you come home then? There’s enough trouble here at the moment without having you around.’ My sister came home at the same time and got an equally cold welcome. This was not my mother being unkind because she was really thinking of us. That summer of 1944, Pimlico had been terribly hit by the Doodlebug attacks. My mother thought we were safer where we were and didn’t want us back in London.

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