The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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105497 Mary Connell-Jarrett Land Army from:Maidstone, Kent My mother kept detailed diaries of her time in the land army which run to 3 volumes from her filling in her application to join 19th September 1939 following the declaration of war only 16 days earlier. She started training at Wye College Kent learning poultry work and after finishing training in December 1939 had to wait until February 1940 to commence work at Pluckley Kent with the English Flax company where she worked until 1941 (not sure of date as this year her diaries aren't always filled in towards the end of her Land Army days)She then joined the WAAF (more money and better conditions I believe) as a RT operator and became a LACW she often talked about some of the raids she was involved with but these aren't noted down in the smaller diaries she kept I presume because of the secrecy of some of thes missions. She met my father who was a bomber armourer and the rest they say is history!! The Land Army diaries are full of the films they went to see, food of the time newspaper cuttings, photoes from Picture Post including one of herself, there is even a detailed account of a night time air raid on Stanley Park Road, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey on Sunday 11th may 1941. She was sat in an anderson shelter in the garden and wrote her diary as the raid happened culminating with the point at which they decided to return to the house and then they wer almost swept of their feet so sat tight unti they heard the all clear at which they discovered the back of their houe had disapeared just as if a knife had sliced of the back of the house all the beds and pictures still in place. She notes that "London is burning what is there to come and what will happen to us?" I have her enamel badge, felt armband, tie and these diaries. I would be happy to share the contents with anyone to who they would be useful I do not at present wish to part with them as they are part of my family history. My mother died in 1994 Mrs Rosemary Smith Add to this record.  Related Content: Womens Land Army Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.