The Land Army Memorial unveiled

After successfully raising £85,000 the Women's Land Army Tribute Campaign was finally able to reveal the beautiful sculpture commissioned to honour both land girls and lumber Jills who worked so hard through world wars one and two.

My land army badge

The sculpture was unveiled on Tuesday by the Countess of Wessex at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Although it was a terribly wet and cold day, many former land girls made the trip to see the 8 foot high statue for the first time. Some of them even dressed up in their land girl uniforms!

Copyright Express & Star

  The fabulous bronze was created by sculptor Denise Dutton who is based in Staffordshire herself.

Here you can see the models posing for the statue in their land army uniforms.

 Here is the sculpture in a bit more detail.

I feel extremely privileged and proud to have been involved in the campaign in even just a small way by raising funds through the sales of the Wartime Farm Sleeveless Pullover pattern and I really want to take this opportunity to thank everyone of you who purchased a copy of this pattern. You all helped make this memorial actually happen.

Funds are still needed to for annual rent on the plot, insurance and maintenance, so please do continue to support the campaign. The Wartime Farm pullover will continue to be sold to help raise funds towards these running costs.

I thought I would close with an illustration I found on the cover of Woman's Magazine from September 1941. Its called Land Girl and inside the magazine it states that it is taken 'from the camera study by W. Suschitsky' who was a photographer and cinematographer born to Jewish parents in Austria in 1912. He moved to London from Vienna in 1934 due to the political climate, where he worked on Government information films during WW11.

What fascinates me about the illustration though is the colour choice for the land girl uniform. Brown jumper and blue tie. Had the illustrator not seen a land girl uniform? Artistic licence? Or was there an alternate colourway? I'm leaning towards the first option but would love to hear if anyone knows differently.

Thank you all once again,

for now,
Susan xx