Women´s Land Army

A Women's Land Army was set up during the First World War. Some files relating to the part played by the Women's Land Army and other women's organisations in the production of food during the war are in the series MAF 42, but no records of women who served in the Land Army survive.

In 1939, a new Women's Land Army was set up. At its peak in 1943 there were some 80,000 women working on the land, and it was continued after the war, finally being disbanded in 1950. The original service records have not survived, but the index cards to them do survive on microfiche in MAF 421, but only for the period of the war, from 1939 to 1945. The cards give name, change of name on marriage, address, date of birth, previous occupation, service number, dates of service and any transfers around the country. They are arranged alphabetically by the first five letters of the surname on each fiche label. The original index cards are held by the Imperial War Museum, but they need a week's notice to produce them.