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Welfare Officer. Ruth Hendry
Womens Land Army
from:Biddenham, Bedford
In 1911 Ruth Hendry went to a dairying course at the Agricultural College in Kilmarnock. Being too young to take the National Dairy Diploma, she returned home to Biddenham, Bedfordshire, and studied chemistry during the winter. The next summer she went to Reading University and there took the National Dairy Diploma. She subsequently ran dairies in Ireland and in Devonshire.
During the early part of WW1 she was an instructress at a farm school in Kent, then a lecturer in Lincolnshire where she travelled to many villages demonstrating the making of skim milk cheeses. In early 1918, she became a welfare officer for the Land Army. Ruth was appointed to the welfare of the counties of Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire which she travelled first on a bicycle and then on a motorcycle visiting and coping with the problems of the land army girls.
In 1919 Ruth and a friend led the land army girls in the peace procession through the town of Bedford. The Land Army was then de-mobbed and Ruth had a variety of appointments in industry culminating with 25 years service as personnel manager with Yardley and Company in the east end of London until her retirement in 1954. In 1951 Ruth was awarded an MBE for her contribution to the welfare of employees in industry and during the wars.
