ABSTRACT
The First World War bit deeply into the fabric of rural society and farmworkers were not insulated from its effects. An initial outflow of young men animated by patriotic fervour or the agreeable prospect of a change in their normal routine was succeeded, in the later stages of the war, by waves of conscripts. An examination of the size and composition of the labour force offers a suitable starting point for further analysis. After 1918, there is evidence to show that many demobilized servicemen were reluctant to return to the land. Already by 1924 the Liberal Land Committee concluded that farm work was becoming 'less skilled', and a perspicacious correspondent of Robertson Scott noticed a tendency for job specialization to die away, along with the ultra-conservative attitudes that had accompanied traditional skills. The twentieth-century history of trade unionism in agriculture offers a useful insight into the self-perceptions of farmworkers.
