Betty Stoddard was an Englishwoman from London who worked in the Women's Land Army farming, and in an aircraft factory in London during World War II. She met her husband, an American army combat medic, in 1943 and married later that year. She then went through the process of receiving clearance to move to the United States. She traveled to the United States on the ship Mauretania with other British wives and hundreds of injured American soldiers, arriving in January 1945. She lived in Missouri with her in-laws until her husband returned and discharged in May 1945. They settled in Iowa.
