In Britain during the First World War, there was a shortage of farm labour as men were conscripted into the forces. There was also a need to grow more food due to the threat to supplies caused by German submarines. This led to the establishment of the Women’s Land Army in February 1917.

By 1918, there were over 113,000 women working on the land. Female labour alone was still not enough to meet the shortfall in agricultural labour. Prisoners of war were also sometimes used, often working alongside land girls.

As these images show, women were employed in a wide range of roles, from dairy work to hard manual labour such as ploughing, flax pulling and felling trees.