Land Girl who made us the best-dressed kids in town

MY MUM’S eyes would light up when she used to tell us of her time as a ‘Land Girl’ in the Women’s Land Army during World War II. She loved that period in her life, posted to a farm in Appleton, near Warrington, and was full of stories of shovelling muck, looking after pigs and ‘pap-pulling’ — milking the cows .

The contribution to the war effort of the Women’s Land Army — there were as many as 80,000 of them by 1944, busy boosting Britain’s farm production — was generally overlooked. So she was thrilled in 2008 when, belatedly, the then prime minister Gordon Brown sent every one of them a Commemorative Certificate and a small badge. Today, I continue to wear it in her memory.

Working the land was in Mum’s blood. She grew up on the Cheshire farm that belonged to her mother’s family, while her dad had been a market gardener.

After marrying our dad Clifford in 1949, Mum (pictured) continued getting her hands dirty, helping him in his work as a nurseryman. At times they worked into the early hours, but she was always there with breakfast on the table the next morning for me, my older brother, Peter, and my younger sister, Jane.

We were the best-dressed children in Chilbolton, Hampshire, where we lived. She was a brilliant seamstress and made copies for us of the coats worn by younger members of the Royal Family.

In later years, she nursed my brother during his slow recovery from a serious car crash (sadly, he died of cancer in 2016). And when my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she cared for him at home for almost a decade.

After her own diagnosis with vascular dementia, she came to live with me and my husband Richard in 2008.

But even as her memory faded, she enjoyed the company of her five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She remained an incorrigible and very accomplished flirt to the end!

Mum’s passing has left a huge hole in our home and hearts. Like the Land Girls, she was often under-estimated, not least by herself. Margaret Elizabeth Winstanley, born April 17, 1925, died July 1, 2018, aged 93.