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TITLE : MY TIME IN THE LAND ARMY

AUTHOR: SARAH JANE HANCOCK
Typed in by Teresa Marsh and is being entered on the
Peoples War Website with your permission.

LOCATION: LEICESTERSHIRE

I joined up when I was 18, and I went to Sutton Hoo Hostel, Bromeswell near Woodbridge in Suffolk in 1943. My interview was at Ipswich, and I had hoped to go into forestry, but wasn’t strong enough, so went into general farm work for the first time! We worked mainly on arable farms, potatoe picking, carrots, and chopped the top off sugarbeet — we used to get all splashed up! It was a very nice hostel, I met some very nice people, some were from London, some from Nottingham, and some from Ipswich. I only managed to keep in touch with Dorothy Eames, from Nottingham, and we kept in touch until sadly she passed away last year. When we weren’t working we used to go to dances in Suffolk where they were based, and we had dances at the hostel.

I worked on the Land Army for two years travelling all over Suffolk, and then got married in 1945 at the Parish Church in Nuneaton, as I was engaged when I went into the forces. I had one daughter in 1947 , and was married to my husband Ernest Merrick for 51 years. I now have three grandsons, twins Philip and Neil, and Paul is the eldest.

While we were working in the fields there was several plane crashes in nearby fields, doodlebugs coming over — which was very scary!

After the war I worked at Rolls Royce at Ansty and was friends with Ron Hancock. He retired in 1979, and I retired in 1982, we lost touch for 14 years, and due to us both being widowed, one phone call and we got back together as friends. Our relationship blossomed, and we married on February 14th 1998 and have now been happily married for 6 years.

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