Interview with female. Former Land Army Girl & teacher, living in Marston Vale

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
Interview with female. Former Land Army Girl & teacher, living in Marston Vale
Interviewer
Semeraro, Carmela
Document Type
  • Oral history Recording
Date
30 Jan 2002
Interview Date
30 Jan 2002
Biography
The interviewee was born on 10 June 1924 and brought up in Bedford, Russell Park area, England. She had two sisters and one brother. Her mother sang, and had a good voice. She looked after the children, her father was a dentist. Her paternal grandparents lived near and often visited her maternal grandfather in Buckingham. Her father taught her how to play games, row, and play cricket and he rode horses and they too went to Clapham Riding School. Her life changed when the war started and she had to help with the evacuees and met them at the train station. She was later offered a job at Town Hall as Billeting Officer and worked in the clerk's office. She had originally wanted to go in to the armed forces, but her parents would not give permission. At nearly 16 she went to Buckinghamshire to work on a farm. She worked in market gardening with Gypsies and enjoyed her time with them. There she met a Land Army official who recruited her and promptly moved her as it was felt that the job she was doing with the Gypsies was not suitable for her. She was sent to Ditton, near Langley in sole charge of a poultry farm. She enjoyed it and stayed there for the duration of the war. She would live in digs near Slough, and cycled to work every day. There were other Land Army girls on the farm, and she would help them occasionally when they were harvesting. She was 21 when she came out of the job and she would get a place at the Harper Adams Agriculture College. She had wanted to teach and went to Bedford Teacher Training College. She was at the training college for two years then went to teach at Pearcey Road School in the nursery before moving to Priory School where she taught a class of 40 children. There was a lot of Italians, Asian and Caribbean children that she had to teach. She did not receive any additional training to be able to cope with so many ethnic minorities, and learned on the job. She would get married and have three children. She wanted to look after her own children, so for 14 years did not teach. She then got a teaching job in Egypt. There she taught children of wealthy families who came to school with their nannies. She was in Egypt for four years. Later, her husband became ill and they would have to return to England.
Length (minutes)
65
Copyright and Source Archive
Material sourced from Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service