This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
212497June Napolitano
Womens Land Army
from:49 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Middlesex
I joined the Women’s Land Army in 1947 age 18 Not letting my mother know, as she was very upset. My life was hard at home being the eldest of 10 children. Thinking life would be a bed of roses & free & easy life at last! Was I wrong! Lights out at 10 pm said our Warden at the Potters Bar Hostel I first went too. I thought out of the frying pan into the fire the first week. Also the first job potato picking was awful & hoeing, Oh dear! The only nice part was the land girls I made friends with. Also our Saturday night extra time out for a dance. That was great until my friend Honar & I overstayed our time & were caught by the warden climbing through the window. I was sent to another hostel & Honar & I was split up, what a shame.I went to a remote village called Sandy in Bedford, a 2 mile walk to a village pub that was the only highlight of the week to play table tennis with the young farmer's boys. We only drank 1 shandy as we could not afford anything else. My £3 wage was halved as I had to send half to my mother. The Hostel (Hassles Hall ) was a bit spooky I thought, but we had a nice crowd of girls. Again the work was so boring again hoeing & weeding. I am afraid I put my hand up. Come & see me Monday for a trial Oh dear! I asked a German POW to please teach me to drive & over the weekend I mastered it. I then had the best job, much to the jibes I had from my friends. From then on I spent the next 2 years enjoying the Land Army. I left in 1950 & met my husband Richard & married had 6 children. Now 24 grandchildren. I ran a rest home for the elderly till I was 72 yrs & now enjoying my twilight years with my daughters. Not bad for 84 so far.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
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.
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:
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.