The Land Girls: Women Who Fed a Nation

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was one of the most vital yet least celebrated organisations of the war. Over 80,000 women—nicknamed 'Land Girls'—left their peacetime occupations to work on farms across Britain, producing the food that kept the nation alive during the U-boat blockade.

Land Girls worked in all weathers, performing backbreaking labour that included ploughing, harvesting, threshing, milking, and working with livestock. Many were city women who had never seen a farm. The Timber Corps, a branch of the WLA, felled trees and ran sawmills to provide timber for everything from pit props to aircraft construction.

Like the Bevin Boys, Land Girls received no campaign medals and little public recognition after the war. The WLA was disbanded in 1950 without any formal acknowledgement. It was not until 2008 that a memorial to the Women's Land Army and Timber Corps was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum, 63 years after VE Day.