It was something of a shock when handed a six-pound axe and shown how to “lay-in” a tree. With a short demonstration on the use of the same, demonstrations on the felling, snedding and the loading of tractors and trucks followed. Crosscutting and the use of the bowman saw, levers, cant hooks and all the tools of the trade. Around noon we were issued with a cheese, or grated carrot between two slices of bread, we boiled billycans of water on an open bush fire to make our own tea.
At 5 p.m., we were advised that dinner awaited us back at the camp, and that as we were only two miles away, we should start walking. Most of the girls had huge blisters on their heels from the new boots; I decided to carry mine over my shoulder, walking the entire way in my socks. Eventually we toughened up and proved that we could handle the job, by the end of the month’s training we were tossing logs, felling trees, cross-cutting logs and loading vehicles. I had elected to become a horsewoman; an old Irish man was the trainer, and in no time I was handling horses like I’d been doing it all my life. Several of the others became tractor and lorry drivers, but the majority were fellers, crosscutters, loaders, and measurers. Being a horse-woman or teamster was the most arduous job of all, running behind a horse dragging trees was risky as well as dangerous as the others were felling trees all around me. I had to be quick on my feet, and if the horse didn’t move fast enough I’d decided that I wasnot going to hang about.
Training completed, we were dispersed throughout the countryside to various forestry camps, I was sent to a new one in the Highlands, in the village of Advie, Morayshire. It was a cold snowy day in December when we alighted from the train at Advie station. On the siding we noticed a row of empty flat cars waiting to be loaded, we guessed who would be providing the timber. Fortunately, several of my friends were also assigned to the same place, by this time we had formed compatible friendships, and made sure to get camp beds alongside one another in the same hut. Our camp was set up in a field far from civilization; about forty of us shared two long wooden huts. The ablution shed was in the centre, reached by a long duckboard. A dining hut and cookhouse made up the remainder of our new home.
It was rugged, draughty and most uncomfortable, our only source of heat was a cast iron stove, which we stoked until it was red hot. We were told that our work was vital to the War effort, but this did not reflect in the treatment we received after the war when we were denied recognition as a service. We numbered 6,900 members in the Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps. in the U.K. No change of occupation was permitted, nor transfers into what was considered the Senior Services. Our uniforms were not ours to keep; we returned them after the war.

Throughout the war, we were underpaid and most of it that was deducted for our food and lodgings, in wooden huts with no plumbing, or creature comforts!We were expected to produce enough timber to supply wood for props for the mines telegraph poles, blocks for roads, masts for ships, sleepers for railways, ladders, newsprint, gun mats and even crosses for graves for servicemen. We worked in all kinds of weather to do this, wielding a six-pound axe. I had been a junior in a public library in Glasgow, with prospects of moving up to assistant librarian. I also found the lack of decent reading material a real hardship. One of the girls had a phonograph, her favourite singer was Tony Martin, and I memorized lyrics to his songs whether I wanted to or not.We entertained ourselves as best we could; it was a drastic change from life in a big city. The girl who owned the phonograph left on sick leave and later died of T.B. One other girl took an overdose of aspirins and was taken to hospital, but was back in the woods the following Monday.

We had quite a number of unfortunate incidents; some of the girls got pregnant and had to be sent home, lots of hasty weddings. British, Canadian, and Newfoundlanders surrounded our camp, needless to say, this created problems, and with not enough girls to go around, they often fought over us. Especially at the dances held weekly by the locals in their village halls. We learned to dance reels, strathspeys and jigs in no time, it was a sight to behold the Canadians and Newfoundlanders doing the eightsome reels, strip the willow was a favourite of theirs, they could really let themselves go then, whooping and hollering. No drink was allowed of course, but the troops had caches of it hidden outdoors in the bushes I expect.

We soon found that “Mr. Coutts’s Jubilee Band ” was a far cry from “Joe Loss and his Orchestra.” Eventually, we formed out own concert group. I took part in a number of skits and sang in the choir. We made many friends among the boys from the Canadian Forestry Corp, and the Newfoundland Forestry Unit. My particular job as a horsewoman was strenuous, after the lumberjills had felled the trees, I would move in with the horse, tie a chain around the bole of the tree and attach it to the swingle bar. Then, leading the horse through brush and around stumps, deliver the tree to the girls in the clearing.

Here the trees were cut into mill logs, pit props, telegraph poles and pulpwood, crosscut and loaded. I worked mainly with Belgian breed horses, Clydesdales, and a Highland Garron named Tommy, he bolted one day and ended up in a bog. It took four men most of the day to dig him out. One of the Belgians named Nancy had a bad habit of swinging her rear hoof, kicking out for no reason. On the way to the stables, we passed the local post office, when the postmistress’s dog barked at her heels she kicked him and broke his leg. After that, none of us wanted to work with her, so an Italian prisoner was assigned Nancy, which proved to be a good choice as she behaved better for him My quota was about sixty trees a day, five and a half days a week. In the summer, we worked until 6 p.m., until dusk in the winter. We Scots were given New Year’s Day off in lieu of Christmas and Boxing Day; our annual leave was one week, the other services received 28 days. It was not long enough to go anywhere to rest up or recuperate.