item details
NameMargaret Mitchell with Betty Gilbert
ProductionCrago Studios; photography studio; 1942-1946; New Plymouth
Classificationblack-and-white prints, studio portraits
Materialssilver, paper, mounting board
Materials SummaryBlack and white photograph
Techniquesblack-and-white photography
DimensionsImage: 79mm (width), 130mm (height)
Registration NumberO.043718
Credit lineGift of Pat Rogers, 2016
Overview
A photographer from Crago Studios captured Margaret Josephine Mitchell (1917-97) and Betty Gilbert walking down the street in New Plymouth.
Margaret was a Land Girl during the Second World War (1939-45), and she is wearing the dress uniform issued to members of the Women's Land Service (WLS). The uniform was dark chocolate brown with a cream shirt, green tie, brown stockings and shoes, and either of two styles of hat (a brimmed felt hat with the left hand side turned up as in this photograph, or a pleated beret).
When war first broke out, Margaret joined the Emergency Precautions Scheme and was a stretcher-bearer in Wadestown, Wellington. She then became a land girl but was initially placed on a dairy farm that did not meet regulations. She transferred to Kaponga, Taranaki, where she successfully worked for the Rowe family. 'I was willing to learn and didn't resent being told what to do or how to do it. I did learn to stand up for myself all the same, and not to let a man run a city woman down' (1). When the owners' sons returned from war in 1945, Margaret moved to another farm at Eltham, Taranaki, and stayed until the Women's Land Service disbanded in April 1946.
Women's Land Service
The WLS began as the Women’s Land Corps in November 1941, and was reorganised as the Women’s Land Service in September 1942, when the dress uniforms were first introduced.
The Women's Land Service was the largest of the women's war services in New Zealand: 2,711 land girls were placed on farms, and hundreds more served unofficially on family farms, totalling 2,963 different farms (2).
(1) Bardsley, D. (2000). The Land Girls: In a Man's World, 1939-1946, p. 156.
(2) Ibid, p. 6.
Margaret was a Land Girl during the Second World War (1939-45), and she is wearing the dress uniform issued to members of the Women's Land Service (WLS). The uniform was dark chocolate brown with a cream shirt, green tie, brown stockings and shoes, and either of two styles of hat (a brimmed felt hat with the left hand side turned up as in this photograph, or a pleated beret).
When war first broke out, Margaret joined the Emergency Precautions Scheme and was a stretcher-bearer in Wadestown, Wellington. She then became a land girl but was initially placed on a dairy farm that did not meet regulations. She transferred to Kaponga, Taranaki, where she successfully worked for the Rowe family. 'I was willing to learn and didn't resent being told what to do or how to do it. I did learn to stand up for myself all the same, and not to let a man run a city woman down' (1). When the owners' sons returned from war in 1945, Margaret moved to another farm at Eltham, Taranaki, and stayed until the Women's Land Service disbanded in April 1946.
Women's Land Service
The WLS began as the Women’s Land Corps in November 1941, and was reorganised as the Women’s Land Service in September 1942, when the dress uniforms were first introduced.
The Women's Land Service was the largest of the women's war services in New Zealand: 2,711 land girls were placed on farms, and hundreds more served unofficially on family farms, totalling 2,963 different farms (2).
(1) Bardsley, D. (2000). The Land Girls: In a Man's World, 1939-1946, p. 156.
(2) Ibid, p. 6.