The Women's Timber Corps: Who were the 'Lumberjills' and what did they do?
- Published
The lumberjills were given a month's training before being set to work
During the Second World War, lots of women in Britain were needed to do jobs that had traditionally been the roles of men.
One group that some women joined was the Timber Corps, and 2022 marks their 80th anniversary.
They were known as the Women's Timber Corps or the WTC.
The thousands of members of the WTC chopped down wood and sawed it down and represented a vital part of the war effort.
What were The Women's Timber Corps?
When the Second World War broke out all of the men who were able, were sent off to fight.
It was then down to the women of Britain to keep things going in factories, farms and fields back at home.
This included chopping down trees to be used for timber - or wood for building.
Men who work with timber are called Lumberjacks, the WTC were nicknamed 'The Lumberjills' by the Northern Daily Mail 8th April 1942.
The Women's Timber Corps or WTC was officially created in April 1942.
In May 1942 the Scottish Women Timber Corps set up training camps.
The camps trained hundreds of young women, aged 17-24 in all aspects of the timber industry.
The women wore green berets to distinguish their unit.
What did the WTC do?
The lumberjills carried out heavy work - felling trees by hand, working in sawmills and driving tractors.
The WTC worked with all things wood.
They were trained in felling (chopping trees down), measuring, sawmilling (dividing the wood up into usable chunks) and of course, moving the trunks around (haulage).
One lady who joined the WTC, Christina Forrester said in an interview: "They gave us an axe and a cross-cut saw and showed us how to swing the axe and make the cut on the tree, whichever way it's going to fall.
"Then two of you used the cross-cut saw and you yelled 'Timber!'"
The WTC didn't have chainsaws so the women sawed the trees with nothing but normal saws and hard work! That's some impressive strength.
Why was the WTC important?
The Women's Timber Service was originally set up in World War One and became the Women's Timber Corps in 1942.
In 1939, Britain got 96% of it's timber from other countries, this is known as importing,
When the war started, imports stopped and Britain needed timber.
It was used for many things railway lines, telegraph poles, gun butts, ships, aircraft, as well as packaging boxes for bombs and army supplies. And also for mining.
"Getting coal out (on mines) required pit props: pit props require trees." said former Head of Forestry Commission Scotland, Jo O'Hara.
A pit-prop is a beam of wood that kept the roof on a coal mine!
"We couldn't import any timber during the war but we were used to importing all our timber from abroad.
"Supplies were cut off so we had to cut down the trees in the country, to produce coal, to heat and light the country - so it was absolutely crucial to the war effort and one that I think has gone under-recognised."
Why is it important that we remember the WTC?
It was heavy work using manual saws
The work the WTC did much to help Britain during the war. They sacrificed their time and jobs and lived in difficult conditions, taking on a physically tough role to help the war effort.
But after the war ended, many felt the WTC did not receive much recognition.
Many of the Lumberjills I met were still upset that they remained a footnote in history, so I wanted to make sure they were remembered.
The WTC was disbanded in August 1946, when each member was handed back her uniform along with a letter from Queen Elizabeth.
They were not invited to attend any Remembrance Day parades and went back to the jobs they had before the war.
In 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown did present the 'Lumberjills' with a special medal, however, some of the women who went to the ceremony were disappointed it had a wheat sheaf on it and not a tree or axes.
One WTC member Bella Nolan, challenged her foreman to a felling dual to prove she was just as strong as a man.
She took one end of the cross cut saw and he took the other and they chopped 120 trees in one day!
Statues in honour of the 'Lumberjills'
There are now a few sites were the WTC's work and women are remembered.
In North Yorkshire a steel memorial to the Lumberjills was unveiled in 2013 by the Forestry Commission.
The Push Don't Pull sculpture in Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire
And in 2007 a statue by Malcolm Robertson was unveiled to help people remember the hard work that the WTC did.
It stands in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park near Aberfoyle in Scotland.
- Published1 September 2023
- Published8 May 2015
