Formal award for WWII Land Girls

[Story]

Women who worked the land during World War II to keep Britain supplied with food and timber can now apply for a badge commemorating their efforts.
The badge is the first official recognition of the contribution made by members of the Women's Land Army (WLA) and the Women's Timber Corps (WTC).

Members of the WLA - also known as the Land Girls - and the WTC have campaigned for recognition for decades.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7211640.stm

 

[Micawber]

About time.

 

[Alan Eardley]

High time... and their contribution didn't end when the war was over. The very severe winter of 1947 almost finished off the UK, which had been weakend by five years of war. Crops failed or proved difficult to harvest and aid that had been provided in war time was being diverted to the continent of Europe (which, arguably, needed it more). The men who may have done the work of feeding the country were returning from mobilisation in fits and starts. The contribution of the WLA in getting the UK through this difficult time places them in the pantheon of heroes, in my opinion.

Alan

 

[Lil' Miss A]

The contribution of the WLA in getting the UK through this difficult time places them in the pantheon of heroes, in my opinion.

Alan

Here! here!...well said

 

[Smithy]

This was long overdue. But it's sad that there are so many who have passed away before this was announced.

On a similar note, I find it interesting how the war forever changed farming methods in Britain. The rapidly increased mechanisation definitely rushed the end of mass labour and the horse.

 

[Alan Eardley]

During that winter a Halifax crashed killing all the crew and a journalist when trying to drop food to a village near where I live. Hard to believe that now...

You see newsreel film of farmers trying to harvest winter root vegetables with pneumatic picks...

Alan

 

[RAF Man]

This award is long overdue and as Smithy says so sad that many are not alive now to claim them, my mother being one of them.

 

[Story]

On a related note -

The Waterways Trust and British Waterways are appealing for women who worked on the waterways during the Second World War to come forward to receive formal recognition of their efforts more than 60 years after the conflict ended.

During the war, women volunteered to work on the canals. Wearing a badge with the initials IW to indicate that they were working on the waterways on essential war work, this group of women became known as the Idle Women.

These young girls, mostly from middle class backgrounds with no experience of manual labour worked hard and effectively, transforming themselves into first rate boaters, earning the respect of traditional boating families.

http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=40408