Land Girl - Ann Abram (1920-2012)
Annie Abram GBW5-FRV was born in Chorley on 11th March 1920 to Olive Jolly and Josiah Abram, a ticket collector for the LMS Railway. The family later lived on Kensington Road in Southport, Lancashire.
As a young woman, Ann worked as a glove maker, however, she applied to become a Land Girl when WW2 began and was billeted in Kirkby, Liverpool.
Ann would still visit her parents in Southport when she could and whilst doing so, she met her husband-to-be, Benjamin Thomas Lindoff. He was billeted with neighbours across the road from Ann’s family home, whilst he was working at Woodvale Aerodrome which had only recently opened in December 1941.
She worked the land in Barton near Halsall and one of her many responsibilities was ploughing – not with a tractor, but with two horses of course.
Benjamin was born on 30th December 1912 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire and as a young man in 1939 when war broke out, was working as a steelworks bricklayer in Scunthorpe. He joined the 6th Battalion of the Grenadier Guards as a guardsman. In 1942, Ann and Benjamin’s wedding was registered at Southport. Sadly, the following year, on 15th October 1943, Benjamin died of his wounds which he had received during the Monte Casino campaign in Italy. This meant that at the tender age of just 23 years old, Ann was a widow.
Ann married James Reginald Leatherbarrow in 1948 and they went on to have a daughter.
In later life, Ann was awarded her Veteran’s badge which was presented to her at Liverpool Cathedral. (Any surviving former Land Girls were rightly eligible to receive these awards from July 2008).
Ann passed away on 28th August 2012, aged 92 years old.
