Former Rye Land Girls awarded medal for war work
Three pensioners from Rye were recently awarded a medal from the government for their contribution to Britain's war effort.
Hazel King, 83, of Cooper Road, Marjorie Clarke, 83, of Bartholomew's Court, Kiln Drive and 84-year-old Mavis Selman, of South Undercliff, were all volunteers of the Women's Land Army, responsible for growing the UK's food during the Second World War while their husbands were abroad fighting.
They are featured in a book written by Ann Kramer which tells the story of the Land Girls, as they were called, and their impact on Britain between 1939 and 1945.
The three women all worked together in the Rye area and on land in the Romney Marshes driving tractors and ploughing fields.
Mrs Clarke said: "I lied about my age so I could become a Land Girl. I was 16 and too young because you had to be 18.
"I worked for the Women's Land Army's area manager at her home in Military Road doing housework and she said I could not join. But I told her I was leaving to go.
"It was hard work but we enjoyed it.
"Often we would start working at 7am and not leave off until 11pm.
"The doodlebugs used to chase us and we could not hear them because of the noise of the tractors.
"It was nice getting the medal and being thanked by the government but it was 60 years too late."
Mrs King said her stint as a Land Girl during the war was one of the happiest times of her life.
She was working in a garage in Fishmarket before hostilities broke out and decided to sign up.
Mrs King, who now has three children, 10 grandchildren, eight great-grand children and one great-great-grandchild, said she was 'thrilled' to be honoured by Whitehall.
Mrs Selman joined the Women's Land Army in 1943 for three years and remembers the hit-and-run raids.
She said: "We worked in a dangerous part of the country. We would hear doodlebugs coming while we ploughed the fields."
The Women's Land Army operated briefly during the First World War and was resurrected by the government just before the Second World War.
Ministers were keen to avoid a repeat of food shortages suffered during the 1914-18 conflict with Germany.
Workers were needed to work on the farms in the UK while the country's men fought abroad.
So in 1939 the call went out to the nation's women to volunteer for farming work.
Many of the 80,000 volunteers who joined the Women's Land Army had never even seen a farm but during the Second World War their efforts helped produced more than 80 per cent of the food eaten in the UK.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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