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Dressed in a scratchy uniform of brown woollen breeches, a green jumper and a shirt and tie, they were the women whose back-breaking labours in milking parlours, in lumber yards and on muddy fields helped to ensure that Britain did not starve during World War II.
While a grateful nation later saluted its fighting forces, the 80,000 members of the Women's Land Army (WLA) received scant official recognition. The Government only begrudgingly paid them a £150 resettlement allowance after the Queen made clear her support for their cause.
Now, some 68 years after the first of the women volunteered for service on the land, the surviving members of the WLA are to be officially recognised for their war contribution with a commemorative badge.
Applications opened yesterday for the medallion, which is being awarded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It follows a campaign to reward the estimated 20,000 women still alive, mostly in their 70s or 80s, who undertook the gruelling work on the home front.
Hilda Gibson, 83, spent two years in the WLA killing rats in Lincolnshire before transferring to Norfolk to muck out and feed poultry. The badge was a "powerful and touching gesture to thank us for what we did", said Mrs Gibson, who joined the WLA aged 18 and now lives in Huddersfield.
"They were men's jobs we took on. They were heavy jobs and hard work. I wanted a job that was important and I felt that it was. This recognition has taken a long time in coming. I think it will be appreciated by the girls who are left."
- INDEPENDENT
