Events Edinburgh

Event Details

This new exhibition tells the important story of the Women's Land Army (WLA) and Women's Timber Corps (WTC) in Scotland.   From roots in the First World War, these Land Girls and Lumber Jills played a vital role in feeding the nation and providing timber.  Objects include a formal uniform from the 1940s right up to the 2008 medal awarded to all surviving members of both the WLA and WTC.

'Land girls' took on all types of agricultural work from sowing to harvesting, calving to shearing, whilst the Women's Timber Corps supplied the wood.  Some volunteered but others were conscripted as by 1941 all women under the age of 60, without children under 14, could be called up for essential war work.  Public recognition of the vital hard work and commitment from these women arrived in 2008 when they were issued with a medal which incorporated the designs from both the Land Army badge and that of the Timber Corps, along with a certificate of thanks from the Prime Minister.