Remembrance Day 2023
Remember Us, by Hilda K. Gibson
Back when life was black and white and not a thousand shades of grey,
A call went out for girls like us to join the W.L.A
To be alive at such a time meant living was intensified,
New tasks – new hardships – joy and pain distilled into a sense of pride.
We looked within ourselves and found a person we had never known
With qualities of inner strength, an independence newly grown.
From urban life to rural fields, from office, factory and shop
Replacing men who left to fight and trust to us each season’s crop.
Remember us? We worked long days till hands were rough and backs were sore,
Giving our all and finding strength each day to give a little more.
But rising in the morning mist and toiling in the summer haze.
This time was ours – a job well done – we will remember all our days.
The Foresters, by J Melvin, published in Meet the Members, 1944.
They’re tramping through the forests,
They’re trudging through the mire,
They’re brushing past the undergrowth,
They have but one desire,
Their greatest thought, their highest aim,
To see, in England, Peace again.
They have no tanks or rifles,
They have no stripes or drill,
They have no ships or aeroplanes,
But England needs them still,
They’re fighting hard with axe and saw,
They’re Britain’s Women Timber Corps.
They’re proud of their profession,
Bad weather does not count,
They bring the tall trees crashing down,
The piles of pit props mount.
They’re doing their bit to win the war,
This almost unknown Timber Corps.
The Girls by Garry Hurt.
Garry writes “I’m an artist on the Isle of Wight, every year I do a painting for remembrance day, this year I dedicated my painting to the Land Army Girls.”
