With their axes, giant lorries and industrial saws, they were more than able to tackle the biggest of trees.
And the ‘lumberjills’ of the Women’s Timber Corps faced down sexism along the way as they helped keep Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany.
Now, a trove of unseen images gives a fresh view of some of the 15,000 women who helped provide the timber the country needed during the Second World War.
The lumberjills are seen posing with all their tools of the trade and the fruits of their efforts.
One shows a pair of workers beaming as they move a fallen tree; whilst in another a group sit with well-earned mugs of cider.
The images have been published in a new photo book by historian Joanna Foat, who previously penned the 2019 work Lumberjills: Britain’s Forgotten Army.
Ms Foat has spent the last decade tracking down the previously unseen images, many of where hidden away in attics.
The author said: ‘Finding a large stash of photos felt like Christmas.
A trove of unseen images shows the workers of the Women’s Timber Corps – known as the Lumberjills – at work. Above: Lumberjills beam as they use a hefty stick to move a felled tree at Bardon Hill Woods, Leicestershire, in June 1944
Lumberjill Doris Youde lays in to a tree with her axe at Bardon Hill Woods, Leicestershire, in June 1944
‘Many show women having such fun working out in the forests doing exactly the same jobs as the men. They became physically very strong.’
The Women’s Timber Corps was established in April 1942 to replace the lumberjacks who had downed tools to go and fight for Britain.
More than 15,000 ‘lumberjills’ cut down tens of thousands of trees to provide timber that was vital for the war effort – even as some men resented women for taking what they considered to be male jobs.
The Government had even initially refused to employ women to fell trees, but because there were thousands of members of the Women’s Land Army insisting on doing their bit, the official position became untenable
The wood that they felled was used in an array of industries, including aircraft and gun manufacture, ship building and mining.
The lumberjills proved they were capable of wielding 14lb axes, carrying logs, working in dangerous sawmills, driving timber trucks and calculating the reliable production figures that the Government depended on.
But, after the war was won, the lumberjills received scant recognition for their efforts and were not even allowed to keep their uniforms or feature in Remembrance Day parades.
The Women’s Timber Corps was established in April 1942 to replace the lumberjacks who had downed tools to go and fight for Britain. Above: Lumberjills drinking cider
Lumberjill Heather Harries and her friend measure the trunk of a fallen tree
Lumberjill Doris Youde and a colleague maeasure fallen timber at Bardon Hill Woods in Leicestershire, June 1944
Ms Foat added: ‘The Lumberjills photo collection helps us to imagine a world where there is equality in career choice, where women are regarded as equal to men in all jobs and skilled trades.
‘We can look to the Lumberjills as a shining example of what women could achieve in male dominated industries and sectors if given more freedom of choice, opportunity and greater representation.’
On the outbreak of war in 1939, Britain imported 96 per cent of its wood. It meant that there needed to be a rapid ramping up in domestic production if the country was to keep up the fight against Adolf Hitler’s forces.
Britain needed to produce millions of tonnes of wood for railway sleepers, telegraph poles, gun butts, ships and aircraft.
The material was also needed to make packaging boxes for bombs and other supplies.
The term ‘Lumberjills’ was coined on April 18, 1942, when the Northern Daily Mail reported that 25 Lancashire girls, who had been clerical workers, typists and hairdressers, left Manchester for a timber training camp in the South-East of England.
Other Women’s Timber Corps training camps were then set up in England: at Culford near Bury St Edmonds in Suffolk and at the Royal Ordinance Factory hostel near Wetherby in Yorkshire.
In Scotland, camps were stablished at Shandford Lodge near Brechin in Angus, and Park House, Drumoak in Aberdeenshire.
Lumberjill Doris Youde using a tractor to haul a tree to the nearby mill, June 1944, Bardon Hill Woods, Leicestershire
Lumberjills load sawn timber onto a trolley at Beaumanor Hall Sawmill in Leicestershire, June 1944
A lumberjill and a male colleague pass a portion of tree trunk through the industrial saw at Beaumanor Hall Sawmill, Leicestershire
Lumberjills sit with some of the fruits of their labour. The women were a crucial part of the war effort
Lumberjill Heather Harries poses with an axe in front of a fallen trunk
A lumberjill stands in front of an enormous felled tree in Surrey
Heather Harries and friends on a haulage tractor in Surrey
A lumberjill measures an enormous fallen tree ahead of it being processed at the sawmill, Surrey
At each camp, women were trained in four lines of work: felling, haulage, sawmilling and measuring timber.
While toppling trees they would often sing songs to keep up morale.
One ditty went: ‘We’re the girls who fell for victory / We’re the girls who chop the trees/ Every time we swing our axes/ It’s a stroke for victory.’
Despite the high morale of the workforce, tree felling was also a very dangerous job and many lumberjills were injured, including some who lost fingers and others who suffered broken legs and and arms after being hit by toppling timber.
Some also rejected the women’s involvement in the felling of trees.
One newspaper, The Western Morning News, even greeted the news with the headline, ‘Forestry Handicap in the South West’.
And the men in charge of forestry camps often angered the female workforce with their condescending attitudes.
Ms Foat’s 2019 book quoted former lumberjills who spoke of the challenges they faced.
Lumberjill Heather Harries on a timber haulage truck that is carrying a heavy load
Heather Harries sits on a felled tree at a logging site somewhere in Surrey, 1943
Lumberjill Kathleen Houghton perches on a fence during an impromptu photo op
Lumberjill Kathleen Houghton at the wheel of a timber haulage truck
Lumberjill Kathleen Houghton drives a timber haulage truck
Heather Harries and friends on a haulage tractor in Surrey
Office staff at Lanhydrock sawmill, 1945
One, Olive Edgley, said: ‘Captain Blunt’s job was to annoy us.
‘We worked so hard and never took lunch breaks, but he would always turn up just the moment we sat down.
‘It was weird we’d been working our butts off and in all sorts of weather and he’d say ‘what are you doing girls?’
‘I remember one day saying have you any quarrel with the figures we send in and the amount of work we do?’
‘No. Right then, just leave us alone.’
After the Women’s Timber Corps was disbanded in August 1946, each girl handed back her uniform and received a letter from Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who was its patron.
However, it was not until 61 years later, in October 2007, that the women received their first formal recognition for their efforts, when the Forestry Commission unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of a lumberjill in Aberfoyle, Scotland.
Labour prime minister Gordon Brown also presented the women with a badge, but many survivors were disappointed because it bore a wheatsheaf – the general emblem of the Women’s Land Army – rather than a pine tree or pair of crossed axes.
The Lumberjills photo book is published by Merrow Downs Press.
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