Land Girls glad of belated thanks
Jan 28 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal
THOUSANDS of women who worked on the land during the Second World War to keep the country supplied with food and timber can apply for a commemorative badge recognising their efforts from today.
The award will honour surviving members of the Women’s Land Army (WLA) and the Women’s Timber Corps (WTC), who have campaigned for decades to get formal recognition of their contribution to the war effort.
Surviving Land Girls from the North have welcomed the news that they can now apply for the badge, which recognises the often gruelling work they undertook on the Home Front.
Margaret Rayner, 82, from Whickham, Gateshead, spent the war working in the Timber Corps in Worcester.
She said: “It will be nice to be recognised with a medal, I will definitely be applying for one. I don’t have any children but everyone who knows me will be pleased for me.
“I was based down in Worcester and I have some great memories of the time I spent working during the war. I was in the timber corps and had to help operate a saw to cut trees down.
“It was hard, physical work which would usually have been done by men. All the girls were very proud of themselves for doing the job. I was lucky I was treated well by my employer.”
Muriel Sobo, of Ponteland, who wrote the 2003 book The Land Girls of Northumberland, said yesterday: “These girls were completely ignored by everyone after the war. They got no coupons, or training or anything.
“It has taken 50 or 60 years for them to be recognised.
“They are all excited about these medals now but many are still angry that so many of their colleagues have died before they were recognised.”
The WLA helped run farms and feed the nation while the men were fighting in the war.
They undertook work – including milking, harvesting, lambing and ploughing – which was often hard, with long hours, poor conditions and low pay.
The WLA had 80,000 members at its peak in 1943 and remained in existence until 1950.
The 6,000-strong Women’s Timber Corps, nicknamed the Lumber Jills, felled trees and ran sawmills to provide timber for the war effort.
Application forms for the awards are available online at www.defra.gov.uk/farm/working/wla/ or by writing to Dermot McInerney at Defra, 5E Millbank, c/o 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR or by calling 08459 335577.
