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Medal honour for land girls

Eve Dugdale
30/ 7/2008

TWO Tameside women have finally been rewarded for the hard work they did during the Second World War.

During the first six months of the Second World War, more than 30,000 men, who had previously worked in agriculture, joined the forces. So the government re-formed The Women’s Land army, which had been set up during the First World War, and by 1944 there were 80,000 women volunteers working on the land.

About a third of these moved to the countryside from Britain’s industrial cities.

Evelyn Handforth, 87, of Denton and Nan Lee, 85, of Stalybridge, were two of these women.

This week they received a medal and certificate praising their efforts from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mrs Handforth, a grandmother, was 21 when she was sent to work on a farm in Chester.

"We did hay making, milking cows, looking after the animals. It was very hard work, especially in the winter. One winter I got frostbite in my fingers getting frozen kale for the cows," she said.

"I’d never been away from home before. I was there from March 1941 to December 1942 and I went home three times. We only got eight shillings (40p) a week and they took half a crown (12.5p) for the loan of a bike.

"I had to cycle 10 miles there and 10 miles back and I worked from 7am to 7pm."

After leaving Chester, Evelyn returned home, married her RAF soldier husband and began working on Lancaster Bombers before working for 24 years as a corsetier at Spirella.

She added: "I feel very proud for getting the medal but it’s a long time since we were there and I’ve heard nothing so I think it’s a bit overdue."

Mrs Lee was 19 when she was sent away to Hereford for four years to live in a hostel.

"The hostel was really for munition workers. I was in a dormitory with 30 girls. We used to go out every morning and a driver took us to various farms where the farmer needed help harvesting or potato picking or other jobs."

Mrs Lee, now a great grandmother, had met her husband to be before she was sent away. He signed up to the RAF and was stationed in India and Pakistan. She added: "I used to try to get home when he was on leave, at Wakes Week or Christmas. We kept in touch by letter, we didn’t get much leave at all."