Lumberjills, Land Girls and the Women's Timber Corps

Written by
Alissa
World Champion LumberJill
​Founder & Owner of the Axe Women Loggers of Maine

​What is a Lumberjill??
Where did this name originate?
Common definitions of a lumberjill are a female lumberjack or a woman who works in the logging industry... felling trees, cutting timber, hauling logs, manufacturing firewood...
There is actually a super cool history behind the term "Lumberjill"... A really amazing history that, unfortunately, not nearly enough people know about. Let's change that!
Lumberjill was the name used during World War II for members of the Women's Timber Corps. While we had Rosie the Riveter here in America, the British Army had these wartime icons keeping them supplied with lumber...

...the Women's Timber Corps was a part of the Women's Land Army (also known as the “Land Girls”), a British civilian organization formed during WWI and then again during WWII. While the majority of men were away at war the Women's Land Army was recruited to help boost food production on farms... They were planting and harvesting crops, haying fields, working on the dairy farms, and raising poultry.... Meanwhile the Women's Timber Corps were harvesting timber for telegraph poles, clearing land for future farming areas, manufacturing lumber for ships, airplanes, fences, and buildings... "It was grueling, backbreaking work - often carried out in harsh conditions - but more than 8000 young women, some only in their mid-teens, tackled it without a peep of protest," according to a 2014 story by Jennifer Newton, published by the Daily Mail. These ladies came from all different backgrounds. Some had grown up on farms while others had come from cities. They learned how to swing an axe, drive a tractor, and use a crosscut saw! They dragged logs, sorted timber, and cut literally tons of wood! 
By 1944 there were more than 80,000 "Land Girls" working on farms, in factories and in the forests keeping their countries supplied with necessary products! 
These women were an amazing part of history!
Once the war ended and life slowly moved back towards normal the Women's Timber Corps and the Women's Land Army were disbanded. Unfortunately, they received no pensions and hardly any recognition for their years of hard work and sacrifice. Some articles state that several of the ladies simply asked to keep their uniforms as keepsakes but were not even permitted to do that.
Official recognition did finally come for these ladies on October 10, 2006. A plaque and a statue were placed in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park in Aberfoyle, Scotland. Eight years later a memorial was finally erected in the http://www.thenma.org.uk/. 
I have started to see more and more articles written about these ladies throughout the past few years...Just last year the New York Times published a really great story called Women With Axes: Looking Back At World War II Lumberjills. They even referred to lumberjills as "Rosie the Riveter's British cousins!" I've seen some books and television shows as well... BBC has a television series called Land Girls! I am very much looking forward to the day I can visit their statue and memorial. But I think it's up to all of us to keep this history alive. 
I would love to see more people sharing this history! Whose mother, grandmother or great-grandmother was a Land Girl or a LumberJill??
As a woman who continues to work in the woods today, as well as compete as a professional logging sports athlete, I am so proud each time I pick up a saw or an axe and think about these trailblazing women in history and how they did their part to help their families and their country... but also how they paved the way of the future for all of us today. 
Let's not forget about the real Lumberjills!