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Charles to honour war Land Girls

03:25, Oct 9 2012

 

The Prince of Wales is to unveil a memorial which is said to be the first in the UK to honour the Women's Land Army.

It will mark the contribution made by the Land Girls who helped to feed the nation by working on the country's farms during the Second World War.

The memorial, on the Fochabers Estate in Moray, was built following a three-year fundraising campaign to raise the £47,000 needed.

Charles, who is known as the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland, will meet some surviving Land Girls and Peter Naylor, the artist who created the memorial sculpture when he visits.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was established in 1917 by the UK Board of Agriculture, which drafted in 20,000 women to work on the land. During the Second World War the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries took over the organisation of the WLA.

At its peak there were more than 80,000 members, who were sent to farms where they were involved in everything from milking, lambing and shearing to planting, harvesting and operating machinery.

The project to commemorate the work of the WLA was instigated by Jim McLaren during his time as President of the National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland.

Mr McLaren, whose mother Katherine was a Land Girl, recognised that there was no permanent memorial to the WLA in the UK, though one is now being planned for the National Arboretum in Staffordshire.

The Crown Estate offered a site for the memorial on the Fochabers Estate.

Describing the work, Mr Naylor said: "Ultimately I think all war memorials should create some emotional stir within the viewer. That mix of emotions can be complex. In this case, though, I want the Women`s Land Army Memorial to gladden the spirit, to lift the heart."

 

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