The Government plans to formally recognise the efforts of the WWII Land Girls.
DEFRA Minister Hilary Benn has announced the government will acknowledge the efforts of the Women's Land Army by presenting surviving members with a special badge commemorating their service and acknowledging the debt that the country owes to them.
The Women's Land Army worked on farms to feed the nation as the male workers went to war.
At its peak in 1943, there were some 80,000 women working on the land, and it was continued after the war, finally being disbanded in 1950.
With their uniform of green ties and jumpers and brown felt slouch hats, they worked from dawn to dusk, milking cows, digging ditches, sowing seeds and harvesting crops. They supplied the nation with food, supporting the war effort and avoiding food shortages.
The work of the Women's Timber Corps (also known as the 'Lumber Jills') will also be recognised. They worked in the forests to provide timber for the war effort felling trees, sawing timber and sharpening saws.
Hilary Benn will present the badges to the first group of recipients at a ceremony to be held next year.
My mum was a Land Girl... so I will have to let her know about this. Glad they are doing something for them. They worked their socks off during the war, trying to do their bit.
I was in the land army for an approx period of 2 and half years from 1942. My DOB is 07.01.1922. I would be grateful if you could let my have any information with regard to the special badges recently announced by Hilary Benn. Many thanks
My mum was in the Timber Corps on the Dorset borders her namw was Virginia Beckett and I would love to hear from anyone who knew her or of her.
F Perkins
AS a boy of six in 1939 we lived in Plymouth when the bombers were flying over our city. After the house across the street from ours we moved out to a farming village called Hennock the other side of Dartmoor Two weeks later our house was bombed.My life in Hennock was the best part of my life. I walked across farmland two miles to school and back with the village children. Our best friends were the land girls who worked on Slade farm at Lustligh where my one room school house was to be found. We always helped the land girls on the farm with herding cows picking up eggs, and tying the wheat sheaves and standing them up. We also picked potatoes then roasted them on a fire in the field. The land girls let us drink cider with them to wash down the spuds. It was a great life. I wrote about it in my autobiography, :When Hitler Bombed my Teddy Bear: