Hadleigh, Suffolk United Reformed Church Minister : The Rev'd Jim Dalgleish MSc www.hadleighurc.org.uk Telephone 01 473 827 895 eMail Minister

Blanche Ransome, a long-standing Member of our Congregation, was invited to Buckingham Palace on the 21st Oct 2009 to attend Her Majesty the Queen, marking the work of the Women's Land Army during the 1939 - 45 War. Blanche was a Land Girl

Blanche goes to the Palace

Blanche had a long day on October 21st.  At 93 this was to be her first trip into the middle of London and as well as that she had this special invitation to have lunch at the Royal Opera House and to have tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.  With her wheel chair specially serviced for royal carpets, we left by car just after nine o’clock and arrived home at eight in the evening.  We took in a few of the sights on the way; the Tower of London, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, St Thomas’ Hospital, London Eye, Horse Guards Parade and crossed the Thames a few times.

Blanche was a “Land Girl” at Stone Street Farm and was one of 80,000 women who, during the Second World War, volunteered to work on the land.  The Women’s Land Army had been set up in June 1939 to maintain if not increase the amount of food grown in Britain and to take over from the men who had been called up for military service.

In recognition of this important work and exactly fifty nine years after the Land Army was disbanded, ninety former members from as far a field as Northern Ireland and Scotland gathered in London.  Blanche was one of a contingent of three representing Suffolk.  Blanche had received her Women’s Land Army commemorative badge some while ago and had been among two hundred Land Girl’s invited to the Bury St Edmunds Cathedral in May this year.  Quite how she came be selected to go to the Palace we are not sure, but it was a well deserved privilege.

At the lunch in the Royal Opera House, Blanche was able to talk with the “top man” as she described him, Environment Secretary, the Rt. Hon Hilary Benn MP.  She held his hand and told him of her war time experiences in Stone Street and how the bomb nearly destroyed the ‘Donkey’.  Then there was tea in the elegance of the Buckingham Palace Ballroom with music provided by the band of the Welsh Guards.  The ladies were seated at a number of round tables with spaces left for members of the Royal family to join the group.  Princess Alexandra was on Blanche’s table and Blanche talked to her about life on the land in Hadleigh.  Princess Michael of Kent also had a chat and the Queen was on the next table.  Prince Phillip and the Duchess of Cornwall were also around.

Blanche; it was a pleasure and a privilege to accompany you on this wonderful day, a day we shall never forget.  Thank you.    Hilary and Nigel