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Phyllis Vincent, a 102-year-old former land girl of World War Two, has spoken of feeling betrayed when her mother kept letters from her sweetheart Ron, leading her to believe that he had rejected her. Although she was already in a relationship with Ron, an RAF gunner, when she joined the Land Army at the age of 18, her mother had always disapproved of him. After being sent off for training, Ron sent coded letters to Phyllis and visited her, but his letters unexpectedly stopped. When Phyllis found all of Ron’s letters on her wedding day to another man, Norman, she felt incredibly angry and hurt, but her mother revealed that she had hidden them from her.
Phyllis had worked on a farm in her native Devon, being paid 32 shillings a week. She learned to drive a tractor and to go up and down and turn the earth. The couple reunited when Ron was on leave, but her mother’s deception meant that their relationship was doomed. Advised by friends to “love again”, she began dating Norman, a wounded soldier, all while still pining for Ron. Phyllis and Norman went on to have two daughters and two sons and the family moved to Australia as part of the Ten Pound Pom scheme. After returning to Devon, she eventually moved as a widow to Red Lodge, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, to live with her son and daughter-in-law.
Reflecting on the futility of war and the loss of many of her school friends, Phyllis mentioned the expectation of being bombed any minute and hearing planes going over. Despite liking her job on the farm, she experienced hard work and an early start at 04:30 each day. Women were paid less than men in the Women’s Land Army, which represented an effort to ensure a steady food supply during wartime. Roughly 80,000 women were part of this effort, but many felt under-appreciated. Parents had more authority over girls back then, with Phyllis noting how parents exerted more power over children than they do now
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