NEARLY 70 years after the end of the Second World War, the Women’s Timber Corps — affectionately known as lumberjills — were finally recognised on Remembrance Day when a national sculpture was unveiled in their honour at Dalby Forest, near Thornton-le-Dale.

William Weston, of the Forestry Commission, told survivors of the Jills and their families, together with civic leaders, that the 9,000 women who worked in Britain’s forests during the Second World War, had played a major role.

He said: “Many went into the Timber Corps having never worked on the land and they had to have physical training to prepare them for the challenge. Dalby Forest played a key part in producing much-needed timber during the war, thanks to Lumber Jills, who had to learn to saw timber, carry out axe work, drive tractors, and operate sawmills. Their role was vital in the war effort.”

Many women trained in Wetherby, before working in Cropton, Boltby and Dalby forests, in the North York Moors, from 1942 until about 1948.

Today, only about 30 lumberjills survive, said Mr Weston, and several of them braved the cold Sunday morning to take part in the ceremony of unveiling the steel sculpture created by Ray Lonsdale, of Durham City, who has become one of the country’s leading artists in steel sculpture.

The three-metre high sculpture of a felled tree and two lumberjills is called Pull Don’t Push.

Mr Lonsdale won a competition run by the Forestry Commission to celebrate the work of the Women’s Timber Corps in England, part of the Women’s Land Army.

Mr Westow said: “The Forestry Commission has been part of the effort to locate all surviving members of the Women’s Timber Corps to enable us to recongise and celebrate the achievements of this group of remarkable young women during the 1939-45 war. This sculpture is a lasting legacy to their achievements.”

Among the lumberjills attending the ceremony were Dorothy Taylor, of Bridlington, and Muriel Berzins, of Aldborough. They said: “It was a tough time for the lumberjills, working in the forests, but it was a great experience and there was much comaraderie. It is nice to have been recognised even after all these years.”

Edna Holland, 88, trained at Wetherby and worked across the North York Moors throughout the war, felling trees to make pit props, working with horses and driving a tractor to remove the wood from the forests.

She said: “Physically it was very, very hard work. We started off by learning to fell a tree. We used the axe to put the wedge in low to the ground to know which way it was falling. We then used a cross cut saw to fell the tree and chopped the branches off the tree with the axe. Then we were taught how to measure and cut different sized pit props.”