By Rebecca Drew
INCREDIBLE black and white pictures have been revealed showing the lives of women who kept Britain in business during WW2 whilst their men were fighting overseas.
The eye-opening photographs show women tending to sugar beet crops so that Britain could produce its own sugar rations, a former London dressmaker standing proudly with sheaves of wheat in her arms and members of the Women’s Land Army fertilising the soil ready to grow crops.
Other images show a woman cleaning out a pig-house and a group of females draining marsh land in Devon for grazing.
Another monochrome shot even shows former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt talking to a machinist whilst on her goodwill tour of Great Britain and members of the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force serving US officers at a dinner.
The Women’s Land Army (WLA) was first formed in World War One when women were called on to fill the gap left from men who went to fight. They carried out tasks such as, threshing, ploughing, drainage and tractor driving.
Women joining the WLA had to attend an interview and have a medical examination before starting training.
