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Hidden victims of the Second World War

An article in the Independent last month focused on an area of victimisation within England and Wales during the Second World War that has remained hidden until recent times.

Professor Brian Short (CCS)More than 100 tenant farmers who were thrown off land more than 50 years ago when they failed to meet food-production targets have recently formed the Dispossessed Farmers' Association, which will be appealing under new European human-rights legislation for belated compensation.

The farmers were evicted - often without warning - under the Defence of the Realm Act, by the all-powerful County War Agricultural Executive Committees (the 'War Ags').

Professor Brian Short (CCS), a geographer whose research interests embrace the activities of these committees and their impact on rural communities, was able to provide vital information using newly available material obtained from the Public Record Office and via oral history.

By 1946 more than 1,800 farms in England and Wales were still held by the 'War Ags'. Astonishingly, farmers were graded A, B or C by other locals and those graded C might in some cases be evicted.

Brian said: "Families were made to feel like pariahs in their communities, although some War Ags took their roles more seriously than others." In one notorious 1940 case, a Hampshire farmer was shot dead by police for refusing to leave his life-long family farm.

"The case of George Walden was most incredible," said Brian. "When he refused to leave, police dropped gas bombs down his chimney. But he had his gas mask and refused to move. In the end they came back armed. The coroner's report described it as 'justifiable homicide'."

While it could be claimed that with wartime food-shortage emergencies, the 'War Ags' were basically successful in their aim to ensure continuity of food supplies, the social cost - arising from the sometimes callous treatment of farmers - is still felt today and the new Association has attracted much media interest. Following the article, both Radio 2 and BBC TV's 'Countryfile' have approached Brian for his participation in items on the issue.

 

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Friday 23 March 2001

 

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