Scottish farmer George Williamson asked young Susanne Clinton to count the cows as they passed through the pasture gate en route to the “byre.”

“As the cows came through, fear hit Susanne panicked, abject fear striking her heart.

“I was terrified, absolutely terrified,” remembers the now 79- Susanne. “I stopped counting after the second cow. I was a town girl and that was the nearest I had even been to a cow.”

However, for the next two years, 16- Susanne became a valuable, hard-working member of the Williamson family. She overcame her initial fear of cattle, shepherding them into the barn, milking them herself and cleaning the stalls.

Farming was considered man’s work at the time. But with men fighting in the Second World War, Susanne and countless others like her served in the Women’s Land Army. The civilian organization was formed in June 1939 to provide a mobile labour force of young women to replace men serving in the Armed Forces.

Over the course of 11 years, 203,000 Land Girls as they were known served on the farms and market gardens of England and Wales, and were vital in producing food to feed the nation.

The Women’s Timber Corps was a separate part of the Women’s Land Army with 6,000 Lumber Jills working in forest and timber mills.

The young female workers, many from towns and cities had to take on all areas of farming, despite only limited training. The young women proved themselves more than capable in what had previously been men’s work, whether in milking, animal husbandry, field work, pest control, tractor driving and all manner of hard physical work.

Susanne joined the Women’s Land Army in 1946 after reaching the required age of 16.

“The war was over, but they still needed Land Girls because the men weren’t all back from the war and some had been killed,” said Susanne.

Assigned immediately

After joining the Land Girls, Susanne was assigned immediately to the Williamson farm, which encompassed more than 400 acres, 32 cows, horses and chicken. Along with Mr. Williamson and his wife, there were two children, 12 and seven at the time.

“As time went on, I really became part of the family,” said Susanne.

She got over her fear of cows, milking them effortlessly by ensuring her hands were properly positioned so the milk would flow properly down the teat and into her pail. It took three people a good hour and a half to milk the 32-head herd.

Susanne was also on hand when cows calfed.

“I never had to help, but I was always there in case I was needed.”

Susanne spent two years with the Williamsons. Later on, the family was joined by a second Land Girl and a German prisoner of war.

It was hard work but Susanne’s memories are fond.

“We made our own fun. When we were milking, someone would start singing,” she said.

“We (the Land Girls) were needed and it was good work.”

After Susanne left the Land Girls, she married her boyfriend, Patrick McGivern, in 1949.

Their first child, Andrew, was born in 1950, followed by two girls, Kathryn and Maureen.

Susanne spent most of her working life in the field of accounting.

She now lives at St. Joseph's Villa in Dundas, and it was there that she recently received one of the greatest surprises of her life. Susanne was presented with her service medal and congratulated by a man she has long admired — former Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander.

Through a series of ruses, Susanne’s family managed to get her down to the villa’s auditorium on a recent Sunday afternoon.

“When I came in, there were a lot of people standing up and clapping. I looked behind me to see who they were looking at,” recalled Susanne with a laugh.

She had wanted Mr. Alexander to sign her copy of his book, Go To School, You’re A Little Black Boy, for about two years and had urged family members to drop it by his home.

“I looked up (in the auditorium) and there was my son-in-law and cousin bringing Lincoln Alexander in.”

Susanne McGivern flips through photos of the momentous day, and proudly displays the service medal and a certificate from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“I was flabbergasted,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”