As many of you will know, I’ve created a series to mark the start of every month for several years now. These posts have covered a range of topics: from the intricacies of running the WLA, Land Girls at work, as well as at rest, to 2020’s county focus on Land Girl’s activities.
For 2021, we’ve looked at a photo related to the Women’s Timber Corps every month, to shine on a light on their valuable role in timber production. We started the year exploring how women commemorated their time in the WTC, before moving on to consider how they spent their working and leisure time during the war. The final two posts moved away from representations of women’s experiences in the forests, to look at how their work has been remembered in memorials.
As 2021 draws to a close, browse some of the photos, and do share with me your thoughts on the monthly series too.
Montage belonging to Joyce Smith (née Pearce). Joyce, known as Joy, began her life in the Women’s Timber Corps in February 1943, where she completed her training at Culford Camp in Suffolk.
A photograph of 5 Lumber Jills, taken by Keystone Press, a prominent press agency during the Second World War. Taken at eye level, the photo shows women communally taking their break; eating sandwiches, drinking tea, and smoking.
A photo, published on the front page of The Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette in August 1942, depicting two Lumber Jills sitting on horses after felling a forest.
The photograph originally published in Illustrated London News, captioned ‘Timber!’, shows the very moment when the tree fell at the behest of two Lumber Jills, one of whom runs away to avoid being hit by the falling tree.
