Celebration of contribution of vital, but often overlooked, group of women
The Mayor of Hounslow is inviting all former members of the Women’s Land Army (WLA) and Women’s Timber Corps (TC) who live in the borough to join her at a special ceremony on Friday 3 April.
The former ‘Land Girls’ will be the guests of honour at a tea party held at Osterley House. The party will celebrate the contribution of this vitally important, but often overlooked, group of women, who played a special part during World War Two.
The Mayor, Councillor Dr Genevieve Hibbs, said: “I look forward to meeting some of the women of whom I heard as a child. They worked so hard, in difficult circumstances, to help deliver victory in World War Two. The contribution of this group of women is often overlooked, so I am very happy that we have the chance to recognise how important they are and were at the time, and to thank them personally for all that they did.”
The WLA and TC were set up in 1939 to replace the tens of thousands of men who had to leave their civilian jobs to enlist in the military.
The main job of the land army was to grow the food that would feed Britain during the war. If Britain was to stand any chance of winning, it had to cut its reliance of food imported from overseas.
Women who served in the TC cut down trees or worked in sawmills to produce the timber that was necessary for the war effort. Others made pit props, without which mineworkers could not have produced the coal that powered Britain’s armament factories.
Osterley House is a fitting venue for the celebrations. To the right of Osterley Lane is a rifle range, set up during the Second World War after Lord Jersey offered Osterley Park as a training base for the Home Guard. The Park was also partly ploughed up to produce food, with the work largely done by Land Girls, some of whom were billeted in the Stableblock.
By the end of the war almost 100,000 women had served in either the WLA or the TC. Many already lived in the countryside but around a third came from Britain’s industrial cities, including London.
The WLA was officially disbanded in October 1950.
The Mayor is writing to all former members of the WLA and TC that we have contacts for. However, if you are, or know of a former land girl living in the borough who has not received an invite to the event, please contact the Mayor's PA, Julie Davies by emailing julie.davis@hounslow.gov.uk or calling 020 8583 2243.
March 12, 2009