Women’s Land Army index cards online at Ancestry

22 Sep 2022 04:55 PM

More than 90,000 index cards revealing the employment details of the ‘land girls’ who served in the wartime Women’s Land Army were yesterday digitised and made available online by Ancestry.

The mostly handwritten collection consists of index cards to Second World War service records featuring the names, addresses, employment details, birthdates, and membership numbers, of the women who helped increase food production in Britain at a time of crisis.

Originally established during the First World War before being disbanded in 1919, the Women’s Land Army was re-mobilised in 1939 to help the war effort. Unfortunately, the service records themselves do not survive.

Vicky Iglikowski-Broad, diverse histories specialist at The National Archives, yesterday said:

“The Women’s Land Army index cards are a powerful source for tracing an individual’s service and gaining a wider perspective on the Women’s Land Army as a whole.

“While the information is brief, they give us a more personal insight into the women who were critical to increasing food production and working on the land, highlighting their county of employment, their occupation and their age, among other things.

“These index cards help us start to piece together the life stories of these important women who served in the land army.”

Explore the collection with Ancestry.