Land Army Records

 

                                          A mockup of the Land Army Alphabetical Index Card which I found

Unfortunately, when I started to look for information about my mother's time in the Land Army she was no longer around for me to ask for further information. I was left with some fragmentary memories of what she had told me and whatever I could learn from other sources. When I started this research, one of the first things that I did was to check the Discovery catalogue on The National Archives site for the UK. There were no online records, but there were copies of alphabetical index cards for the Land Army which covered the years between 1939 and 1948. The reference number for these records is MAF 421. I found this record on an in person visit to The National Archives at Kew.

As the name indicated, the information on the index card was sketchy at first glance but gave intriguing tidbits of information to follow up on. There was, of course, her name and her current address. The address given was in Welwyn Garden City, a different address from the Greenwich one that I found in the 1939 Register for her father. That's something else to follow up on but I'm not sure if the whole family had moved to Hertfordshire or if my mother was staying with someone there.

Also on the card was her age with her birthdate in brackets. The bottom right corner of the card also had a date with no explanation. When I did the math, it appeared that 5/1/42 (May 1, 1942) was likely to be her date of enlistment. There was a W.L.A number, no doubt this number was a key to any further records but no further records were available. Under the space left for the age of the woman, was a space for Present Occupation which, in this case, was given as clerk. There was a diagonal line through the whole card. Above this line was writing that I interpreted as saying: "Resigned Herts Reg't 8/12/45". 

It looks like this was the only official record for my mother's years in the Land Army. It's enough to give a brief sketch of her time there, giving the length of service and information such as the address to follow up on. I'll see what else I can find.