Wednesday 9 August 2017

MF at KM

FOOTNOTE [or rather added HEADNOTE]
 from a website on uniforms
Women joining the Women’s Land Army (WLA) during WW1 were issued a simple uniform consisting of 2 green sweaters, 2 pairs of brown breeches (either twill or corduroy), 1 pair of brown overalls, 6 pairs of brown long woolen socks, 3 shirts, a green tie, a pair of shoes, a pair of ankle boots, a pair of tall boots, 2 overcoats, 1 raincoat, and a brown floppy hat or beret. It was a civilian English/Wales organization that hired women to do farm functions since many men were at war.

this blogpost is rather belated, but there are a good few weeks still for this exhibition at Kelmscott Manor presenting the usually shadowy [though physically large] figure of Mary Frances Vivian Lobb,  friend and companion of May Morris's later years.


From Cornwall to Kelmscott, Kelmscott Manor SAL, 2017
 
Images and documents come from the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth, whither they were bequeathed by MF, as May called her, and recently researched by Simon Evans. 

MFVL's will,  National Library of Wales 
A much fuller account of MF is now emerging, which one hopes will erase the misogynistic and homophobic notions of a foul-mouthed land-girl handed down by contemporaries after both MM and MFVL were dead.  
 
More information on the exhibition HERE


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