Elsie Osborn

General Information

First Name(s): Elsie

Unmarried Surname: Osborn

Married Surname: Moody (married June 1949)

Date of Birth: 24 May 1924

Place of Birth: 27 Nicholson Street, Cleethorpes

Previous occupation: None.

Reasons for joining: Loved fresh air, and couldn’t bear the thought of working in a factory.

Family’s reaction to joining: Happy – father was a Quaker and pacifist.

Reasons for leaving: Disbanded, presumably, at end of war.

Believed to be 1940-2 – judging by fashions, age of girls (Elsie would have been 16-18 and Marion 20-22 in 1940-42), and railings would have been requisitions for munitions. Elsie (left) with mother, also Elsie (centre) and sister Marion (right).

Employment

Worked on a farm in Gosport (?), Hampshire. Lived with parents, at 5a Gordon Road, Gosport, Hampshire for the duration.

Type of work undertaken: General farm work in the fields, including occasional tractor driving.

Work liked most and least: Liked most – don’t know. Liked least – hacking frozen sprouts off the stems with their hands and driving the iron wheeled tractor because it jarred.

Best and worst memories of time: Local bus drivers, working for her father’s company (Provincial Bus Company), would call out, “Oy, oy! Ozzie’s Girl!” and Mum would shyly wave back.

Opportunities to meet other Land Girls: On the same farm.

Elsie is pictured on the right and Hilda is third from the right. ‘It’s a staged photograph, and Mum said it was never like that in reality – for instance, the clothes and tools weren’t pristine, they didn’t go to work wearing hard hats, and so on. She said it gives a very glamorous impression!’
A colourised version of the above photograph.

Life after the war

Did they return to their pre-war occupation? No.

What was their post-war occupation? Housewife/ shop manager. We disagree whether she ever achieved the level of manager, although I recall her saying she managed a department in Shepherds’ Bush. She worked in lots of shops over the years in London, Gosport and Ringwood, before moving on to become a carer for blind and elderly people in residential care homes in Cambridgeshire.

How did work in the WLA effect their life? Absolutely loved it, and remained friends with another land girl, Hilda Krustins (née King), for the rest of their lives. It taught her resilience and hard graft – it was a love hate relationship. When it was good, it was very, very good, but when it was tough it was awful.

Any other information: Dad met Mum when he was in the RAF on National Service. Hilda met her husband (Janis Krustins), who was a Latvian serving with the British during the war, and afterwards became a farm mechanic. 

She never gained a driving licence, as it wasn’t necessary during the war years and, although she had many lessons at different periods in subsequent years, she never took a driving test – partly because she was very short-sighted.

My sister has her cap badge in her jewellery box.

Contributor Information

Philip Moody, son and Beverley Grove, daughter.

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