Roots

During World War II, Imogen's late paternal great-grandmother Nancy (nickname "Bat," short for Battle Axe) worked with the Women's Land Army in England.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organization created during the First and Second World Wars to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the WLA were commonly known as Land Girls. In effect the Land Army operated to place women with farms that needed workers, the farmers being their employers. -Wikipedia

Imogen's great-grandfather Ronald, now 94, was a conscientious objector. He apparently was placed on the same farm as Nancy. They met when a friend of his whistled at Nancy and then ducked, leaving Ronald standing there when she looked up.

Of those [conscientious objectors] directed to non-combatant military service almost 7000 were allocated to the Non-Combatant Corps, set up in mid-1940; its companies worked in clothing and food stores, in transport, or any military project not requiring the handling of "material of an aggressive nature." Around 450 NCC members worked in bomb disposal; other non-combatants worked in the medical corps. Other acceptable occupations were farm work, mining, firefighting, ambulance service. -Wikipedia

They had nine children and he supported the family with the master gardener skills he learned during the war years.