The photograph above shows the Stathern Woman's Land Army at the Rectory where they were billeted.
The picture is from the Leicester Mercury , 8 January, 1998
WW1 and WW2 Service Women at Stathern
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From the United Kingdom, over 3 million men were called up or volunteered to do military service in WW1 and of these there were 110 men from Stathern. This meant that they left their workplaces seriously short of labour and these roles had to be taken over by others; and those others were often women. Following the campaigns of the suffragette movement this was their opportunity to advance the status and rights of women, and they grasped it! After all, the suffragettes’ motto was “deeds not words”.
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The Government of the time recognised and encouraged the role and value of women to support the war effort in, for example, the production of food, and in factories and, of course, nursing. Women may not have been on the front line – although some nurses were – and their lives were not in excessive danger, but they contributed greatly to the war effort and we must continue to value their service.
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Their names generally do not appear on memorial boards, However we are fortunate that the names of four WW1 service women from Stathern are recorded on the village Roll of Honour board in the War Memorial Institute:
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Edith Alderman, The Territorial Army Nursing Service
Joyce Alderman, The Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, and
Elizabeth Pointer and Millicent Richardson, The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
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Edith Alderman was rather special; born in 1880 in Hampstead Middlesex, she was a Military Nurse and Sister at the 3rd London General Hospital. At the age of 37 was awarded the prestigious Royal Red Cross (RRC after her name), which was presented to her by King George V at Buckingham Palace in 1917. Her sister Joyce was born in 1888 at Stathern and successive Aldermans have continued to live and farm here.
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So in WW1, apart from the nurses, there was an “army” of women recruited to “keep the home fires burning” as the song said. Very many women’s groups were set up, some to raise funds and others to do humanitarian work, factory and farming work; indeed their work was wide-ranging and really quite remarkable.
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This note is primarily about the ‘home front’ – the war effort back here in the UK and the particular part played by women, with special reference to Stathern.
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In the history of the ‘home front’, Stathern played a rather special part in both world wars. In particular we had stationed here in Stathern members of the Women’s Forestry Service in WW1 and the Women’s Land Army in WW2. Perhaps Stathern was chosen to house these groups rather than other surrounding villages because it had, in those days, a fairly important railway station where the lines of two railway companies met, or maybe because the Rector had volunteered accommodation in what is now called The Old Rectory.
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In the First World War our soldiers needed timber – lots of it – to support trenches, tunnels and for duckboards and temporary roads, and timber was also needed in the UK for items such as paper production and construction. The woods above Stathern and towards Belvoir had a plentiful supply of timber and with the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle actively encouraging his staff to volunteer for the war, it was women who were asked to undertake forestry work. Towards the end of 1916 the government began to organise a range of women’s auxiliary services to release more men for fighting and so the Women’s Land Army was formed. In 1917 there were a quarter of a million women working in what had been men’s roles and there were 20,000 in the Land Army. There are pictures of women employed as railway workers, delivering mail, the police service, and even tarring and chipping roads; the list of roles was extensive; it was quite remarkable what jobs they undertook. There was a section of the Land Army called the Women’s Forestry Service and there were at least 11 members of the WFS drafted to Stathern. They were housed in the Rectory on the top floor in dormitories where for years previously the various Rectors had privately taught pupils, mainly sons and daughters of military personnel working in colonial countries.
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There were two groups of workers in the Women’s Land Army, the measurers and the cutters. Measuring was considered a skilled trade and the measurers would be in charge of the cutters or fellers. The cutters needed above average physical strength; they learnt cross-cut sawing, felling with axes and how to handle the horses that dragged away the trees. They all wore a uniform, as did all units of the Land Army - boots, khaki breaches, leggings, a wide brimmed hat, and a white smock with a badge. Their uniform would have been shocking to a traditional village like Stathern, where ankle length dresses were still the norm.
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In the church of St Guthlac at Stathern there is a
well-used church oak hymn board. It isn’t just any
old hymn board but a rather special and unique
one, precious to the church and to the village.
Down each side and across the top there are
carved oak leaves and at the four corners
are badges, and in the middle at the bottom
there is a plaque.
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This hymn board commemorates the
Women’s Forestry Service in Stathern.
Their badges are shown at the corners;
two show a stylised tree with the letters
WFS for the measurers and two crossed
axes above a cross-cut saw for the cutters
with the additional letters LATS – Land Army Timber Service. The plaque in the middle reads:
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Women’s Forestry Service. This token of gratitude to the rector Rev W New and his daughters is presented to St Guthlac’s Church by the following members of the Women’s Forestry Service: L ARNOLD, J CHARLTON, L LEE, E BLAND, D BUTLER, M BUTLER, L ROBINSON, M SCOTT, E WILMOT, E PEAKE, M KELLY. 1919
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Little is known about these young women; where they came from, how long they stayed, what happened to them, or whether there were more than these 11 persons. Many would have married, perhaps some living locally. It is not be easy to find out more about them. All will now have died. However we pay tribute to them and their names live on in Stathern Church on the precious hymn board.
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In the Second World War, history virtually repeated itself locally. There was a desperate need for home-grown food, so the Women’s Land Army was reformed under the direction of the formidable Lady Denman who had also formed the Women’s Institute in the 1st World War. There were 80,000 members of the WLA in 1944. A group of these young women were drafted to Stathern to work, not specifically for forestry but to help local farmers.
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Probably these women have now all died, but the writer of this note did speak to one in 2014, Mrs Ann Welbourne, who lived at Plungar with her husband Doug. She was then 90 and he was 94 and her memory was a little uncertain. She was from Sheffield and was conscripted at the age of 17. She had the choice of working in munitions, farming, or forestry. She chose farming and was sent to Stathern. There were probably about 24 girls in total from Sheffield and the Leicester area who made up the Women’s Land Army team in Stathern and they boarded in the Rectory top floor dormitory, 6 to a room with 4 partitioned rooms, and some may also have been boarded out in farms.
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Ann was here for 4 or 5 years, and her work was usually in a gang, potato picking, threshing corn, collecting timber, hoeing, looking after chickens, milking, perhaps driving tractors; working on farms as needed all around the area – she particularly mentioned Muston, Eastwell, Normanton and Long Clawson. Sometimes she cycled, sometimes she went by lorry driven by George Cook who ran the men’s camp along Blacksmith End. George from Norfolk (who married local girl Muriel) was called up but as he only had one eye he was barred from joining the services, despite dearly wanting to join the RAF. He was sent here to manage the men’s camp on Blacksmith End, which from time to time apparently housed prisoners of war and conscientious objectors. He later formed a business mending bicycles which later became the village garage named Wood and Cook, and is now Stathern Garage.
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For the ‘Land Girls’ (as they were called), work was hard and long, and the pay was very low but these were apparently happy days. Initially they got the equivalent of £1.85/hour for a 50 hour-week paid by the farmers, and this was later increased. They wore a uniform and their badge was a wheat-sheaf. They would often go to The Plough for a drink in the evenings; that was their entertainment. The Plough had a reputation for never running out of beer and was apparently a mecca for airmen from Langar. Ann also mentioned Americans and Canadians, army men from Dalby Camp and of course the Land Girls. After the war she returned to Sheffield and years later in 1956, when she was 31, Ann married Doug Welbourne, who she met when, as a Land Girl, she and Doug were working at Fairbrother’s farm. She mentioned other Land Girls: Irene Smith (Graham Smith’s mother, who also came from Sheffield), and Joyce Taylor.
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In 2008 the Prime Minister at the time, Gordon Brown, presented a commemorative badge and citation to all surviving Land Army girls or their families, some 45,000. Ann showed me hers. It said “The government wishes to express to you its profound gratitude for your unsparing efforts as a loyal and devoted member of the Women’s Land Army/Women’s Timber Corps at a time when our country depended upon you for its survival”
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Perhaps there is a list of the Stathern Land Girls but it has not been found. There is a group photograph but names are not recorded against the photograph. So memories fade, but the spirit of what the Land Girls did surely lives on in part of the make up and culture of British society, which is to be of service when there is a need.
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In both of these wars, keeping the Home Front intact was vital. We remember and thank the young women who came to Stathern and played their part in this vital work. May we never forget their effort, which has helped Stathern Remembrance Service Address by Roger Hawkins, November 2014
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The picture below shows some of the Land Girls who were billeted in a hostel probably in Blacksmith End after the war had ended. The photograph is reproduced from a Melton Times article, date unknown.
