The Home Guard and the Women's Land Army
During the War, Dad worked on a local farm and watermill owned by his Mother’s family in Bloxham (the next village) – he was in a Reserved Occupation (like coal-miners, merchant seaman, fisherman, and other occupations which were essential to keep the country fed and supplied with critical supplies). The farmhouse and watermill are shown in the photo at the top of the article – the photo is believed to have been taken in about 1900. (In 1945, he moved to Lamprey & Son, a seed corn and animal feeds company in Banbury (in the same business as Heygates), where he worked up to his retirement in 1984.)
Dad was a member of the Home Guard for four years, and developed an developed an extensive knowledge of the local area. At the end of the War, he (and I believe all who served in any of the Armed Forces) received a letter of thanks from King George VI.
Food was rationed from Jan 1940, and clothing from June 1941; petrol for private purposes became very scarce, so most private cars were barely used from 1942.
Typical rations per person per week were:-
Butter : 2-4oz
Cheese 1-4 oz
Bacon / Ham : 4oz
Sugar : 12 oz
Tea : 2oz
(1oz is about 28 grams; 35 ounces is about 1 kilogram)
Meat was rationed by cost rather than weight – if you ordered a cheap cut you got more weight than an expensive joint. A typical weekly ration for an adult was one shilling and twopence (in 1945), which is equivalent to about £3-60 at today’s prices. You could also get offal such as kidneys and liver as well as your meat ration, but supplies were limited. Almost half of your meat ration in 1945 had to be taken as corned beef. Other foods on a points system (when available). One egg per fortnight.
Meat was both scarce and rationed, but rabbits were not on ration, and farmers considered them vermin because they ate the crops. Dad knew farmers for miles around, and they were happy for him to catch them with nets and ferrets, or shoot them. He was a good shot and skilful with ferrets, so caught hundreds – some he kept for his Mum (who was a teacher) and his brother (who also worked on a local farm), but he distributed the great majority to the poorer and more isolated homes in the village.
Rabbit is now an unusual meat in the UK (though surprisingly popular still in Malta), but I can personally assure you that rabbit pie and rabbit stew are both very tasty meals – I used to take rabbit pie back to Uni in the 1960s.
(It is alleged that Dad used sometimes to twitch when he shot at a rabbit, and bring down a pheasant or partridge by mistake (which the farmers did not want him to shoot); you may think that this was a deliberate ploy to introduce some variety into a menu of rabbit and the limited rationed meat available – I couldn’t possibly confirm or deny that.)
How did the War affect Bodicote?
I know of two events where the War impinged directly on Bodicote. On 14th November, 1940, the Luftwaffe launched their infamous air raid on Coventry. Coventry is 27 miles north of Bodicote, but the raid could clearly be heard from Bodicote, and the red glow could be easily seen in the sky. (Later German reports said that the red glow could be seen from their aircraft as they crossed over the south coast on their way to Coventry). One aircraft dropped three bombs in the fields a few hundred yards north of the village, causing no damage to buildings or people, but creating deep craters that could still be seen 30 years later.
The other incident was a bomber on a training flight that had engine trouble; the pilot was able to steer the plane away from the village, but could not prevent it from crash landing and killing all the crew. In 2012, the village arranged to erect a memorial to the crew of this aeroplane, and relatives of some of those killed attended a short opening ceremony – there was still one living witness to the crash in the village at the time.
Bodicote had at least three camps – an allied army camp (used first by the British and then by the Americans), a hutted community for Polish farm workers, and a Prisoner-of-War (POW) camp for captured Germans and Italians. The grand-daughter of one of the Italian prisoners visited Bodicote after the war, partly to see what it was like, but also because her Grandad had enjoyed his time in the village.
One of Dad’s nephews said he could remember seeing black GIs (American soldiers) marching down the road. They were housed separately from the white American soldiers, who were in a separate camp on the other side of the village.
There was a small air-raid shelter in the gardens of the Manor House, and the Air Raid siren remained by the Council-owned cottage until at least 1966. People could make their own Anderson (garden) or Morrison (indoors) shelters, though they would only really help against flying shrapnel and bricks, not normally a direct hit.
Mum’s Evacuation to Bodicote
At the start of the War, Mum lived in Dover, but this was a very unsafe place to live (as described elsewhere, so in 1941, Mum was evacuated to Bodicote, where she initially worked at the Banbury Food Office. She met her husband-to-be (my dad) in Bodicote, and transferred to the Women’s Land Army (WLA).
Mum enjoyed her time as WLA Girl working on farms in local villages. She started with an eight-week training course in nearby Cropredy, then allotted to a farm where she got up early on cold dark mornings to milk the cows – she also became skilled at driving tractors, hoeing, digging, ploughing, feeding the animals, etc. Although most of the WLA girls were from towns and cities, many of them married local country lads.
The Women’s Land Army was not formally recognised at the end of the War, despite all their efforts and vital role in providing food for the nation.
In 1968, a campaign started to organise a reunion of WLA ‘girls’, and a national reunion of 5,000 was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Also, several local events were held such as one in Bodicote which Mum organised. The events attracted considerable interest in the national and local press with many exchanged memories and new stories. Other former WLA girls reported that they worked from 4:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and to midnight sometimes in the summer. One said she had six weeks continuous duty without even a half-day off. Their uniform was free but had to be handed back at end of War. One family refused to return the uniform because the trousers had been patched 14 times in 7 years, but relented when the Government Department threatened legal action. Other girls received medals for pulling pilots out of burning aircraft, some were killed as a result of enemy action or plain industrial accidents.
The campaign also led to the WLA being recognised and laying their own wreath at the annual Remembrance Day event at the Cenotaph.
Mum and Dad were married at the Methodist Chapel in Bodicote in 1944. After a short time in Banbury, they moved back to the house in Bodicote which had been the family home since 1924 (and remains so to this day, though with the expected generational turnover).
Shared by Malcolm Rogers, their son
Comentários