Canada Stamp #3464-5-FDC - Farmerettes and Soldiers of the Soil (2024) $1.98

Set of 2 official first day covers

Just in time for Remembrance Day, honour Canadian home front heroes with this stamp issue commemorating the Soldiers of the Soil and farmerettes, who provided much needed farm labour in Canada during times of war.

About the issue

Farm labour shortages due in part to men leaving for military service in the First and Second World Wars led to national and provincial initiatives to maintain both the domestic food supply and Canada’s commitment and ability to produce food for Britain and the Allied troops overseas.

Teenage boys and young women recruited to work on farms through national and provincial initiatives is an example of how civilian members of society stepped in to help with the war effort at home.

This stamp issue salutes the young women and men whose labour through two world wars helped keep plates – and stomachs – full, both on the front and at home.

Soldiers of the Soil

In early 1918, the Canada Food Board created the national Soldiers of the Soil (SOS) initiative, to recruit boys 15 to 19 years of age to work on farms for the remainder of the war. The program’s acronym aptly spelled out the Morse code call for help.

More than 22,000 boys enrolled in the program. They planted, tended and harvested vegetables and fruit, helped with haying and cared for livestock. In return they received monthly wages, as well as room and board.

The boys had the option of buying a military-like work uniform consisting of khaki pants and a shirt with brass S.O.S. buttons, along with a straw harvester hat.

At the completion of their term, they were awarded a bronze lapel badge of honour – similar to a service medal – inscribed with S.O.S. The badge was presented upon their “honorable discharge,” often at a community ceremony that acknowledged their valuable wartime contribution.

Farmerettes

During the First World War, the Ontario provincial government created the Farm Service Corps, made up of girls 16 years of age and older, to provide farm labour. The Corps ran from 1917 to 1918, and the workers were known as farmerettes.

During the Second World War, a similar initiative, called the Ontario Farm Service Force (OFSF), was put in place from 1941 to 1952. More than 20,000 girls signed up to join the OFSF’s Farmerette Brigade. (The OFSF motto was “We Lend a Hand.”)

Living in camps and working up to 10 hours a day, the girls planted, tended and harvested fruit and vegetables in farms and orchards, and also worked in canneries.

High-school students in good standing who worked a minimum number of weeks could be exempted from year-end exams.

About the design

The two stamps feature archival photos of participants in the national Soldiers of the Soil initiative and the Farmerette Brigade of the Ontario Farm Service Force, respectively, at work in the fields.

The farmerettes photo, entitled “Taking a break from hoeing celery,” features four Farmerette Brigade participants in Thedford, Ontario, in 1945. The Soldiers of the Soil photo features program participants harvesting flax in Willowdale, Ontario, circa 1917.

The pane background features a photo showing farmerettes in the entrance of their army tent accommodations in St. Catharines, Ontario, 1941. (Photo album of Barbara Murray, a Farmerette, George Metcalf Archival Collection, Canadian War Museum, CWM 20160542-003_10a.)