We salute you!

THE Women’s Land Army and Timber Corp Badge recipients with (centre) Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Shoab Akhtar and Mayoress Shafeena Kausar

Land Girls and Lumber Jills thanked for their war service

SURVIVING veterans of the Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps were thanked by Oldham Mayor, Councillor Shoab Akhtar, for their service to the nation during Second World War.

Around 25 local women attended a tea party with entertainment from Royton’s St Aidan and Oswald RC School pupils at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The event was hosted by the Mayor, Councillor Shoab Akhtar, who personally thanked all the recipients of the Women’s Land Army and Timber Corp badge which has been received by all veterans to commemorate their war effort.

Betty Whitaker (79), of Lees New Road, Holts, was one of the veterans who attended the tea party. She said: “I can remember working at a farm in Sandycroft, North Wales. I did general farm work like milking cows, hay making and harvesting. In the winter months it was really hard because our hands would bleed with frost.

“All the food was rationed as well and we would be on just jam sandwiches all day.”

She added: “The Mayor thanked us all for our service and the whole day went really well.”

The Women’s Land Army (WLA), known as the Land Girls, was formed at the outbreak of the Second World War to work on the land, freeing the male workers to go to war.

By 1943 there were around 80,000 young women working in every aspect of agriculture to feed the nation.

With their uniform of green ties and jumpers and brown felt slouch hats, they worked from dawn to dusk each day, milking cows, digging ditches, sowing seeds and harvesting crops.

The Women’s Timber Corps (WTC), also known as the Lumber Jills worked tirelessly in the forests to provide timber for the war effort, felling trees, sawing timber and sharpening saws.