• Airmyn
• Asselby
• Barlby
• Barmby on the Marsh
• Blacktoft
• Bubwith
• Carlton
• Cowick
• Drax
• Elvington
• Foggathorpe
• Gilberdyke
• Goole
• Gowdall
• Great Heck
• Hemingbrough
• Holme on Spalding Moor
• Hook
• Howden
• Kilpin
• Market Weighton
• Moorends
• Newport
• North Cave
• North Duffield
• Rawcliffe
• Reedness
• Sandholme
• Seaton Ross
• Selby
• Snaith
• Spaldington
• Swinefleet
• Thorne
• Wheldrake
• Wressle

World War II honour for Land Army girl

Eighty-five-year-old Joyce Millward has finally been recognised for her efforts with the Land Army during the Second World War.

More than 60 years after the the war came to an end, the Government has finally decided to honour all those women whose did so much to keep the British war machine ticking along on the Home Front.

Joyce, a grandmother-of-nine from Adlingfleet, is one of hundreds of former Land Army girls who have received a belated thank you from the Government in the form of a commemorative medal.

However, true to a generation for whom personal sacrifice was seen as an obligation rather than a chore, Joyce remains coy about her sterling efforts to keep a war-weary nation fed.

She said: "I think it's nice to get a medal but I don't think we should go on about the war. We are in peace now and we don't want memories of the war; it should be left to history."

Joyce worked on a farm in Settrington, north of York, from 1941 until 1945.

The work was unrelentingly hard and, for four years, she would rise at 5am every morning to milk the cows.

"That was the hardest bit," said Joyce. "Sometimes it was very, very unpleasant, but the smell of the fresh farm in the morning was nice."

She added: "In those days the farmers' wives wanted maids, and the Land Army girls were there all the time - we were never off-duty. Whenever the farmer's wife was ill we had to help with the housework too. I never stopped - it was one thing after another."

While other Land Girls were bussed in from nearby hostels for their day's work, Joyce stayed at the farm.

"I was living there morning, noon and night," she added.

Joyce's granddaughter, Leanne Millward, said: "We're delighted that our grandma has finally been honoured. It's taken a long time but we got there in the end!"

In 1947, two years after the war came to an end, Joyce married Fred Millward, himself a war hero, after they met at an army-barracks dance in Hull, where Joyce grew up.

The couple, who - as well as nine grandchildren, also have six great-grandchildren and four grown-up children - have now been married for 61 years, 43 of which have been spent at their home on Garthorpe Road, Adlingfleet.

Fred, who is also 85, was wounded while serving with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in Italy. After being treated at an Italian hospital he was moved on to a prisoner of war camp in Germany.

The commemorative medals for the Land Army Girls comes after calls went out for the women who worked on the Home Front - including the Timber Corps, who felled trees in woodland - to be recognised as genuine war veterans.

The Land Army reached its peak in 1943, when some 80,000 women worked on the land. It was finally disbanded in 1950, five years after the war ended.

The women - who wore a uniform of green ties and jumpers and brown felt hats - were known colloquially as Land Girls, while the Timber Corps were nicknamed the Lumber Jills.

The Land Army Girls worked from dawn until dusk milking cows, digging ditches, sowing seeds and harvesting crops to make sure the nation did not go hungry during the lean war years.

Published on 28th August 2008 in News.

Add to: Digg | del.icio.us | Reddit

Property | Books | Contact Us | Sitemap | Terms & Conditions | Feeds