A tribute by her children, Bill and Linda King

Siblings Bill and Linda King responded with a dedication to their mother, Audrey King, who became a Lumberjill during World War II when she was a teenager. Audrey served as a member of a small team that marked and measured trees for felling on the Cowdray Estate and elsewhere in Sussex.

Can you introduce yourself and how you’re related to a Lumberjill?

My name is Bill, and I have an older brother and a younger sister - our mother, Audrey, was a member of the Timber Corps (Lumberjills) of the Women's Land Army during WW2. She was a member of a small team marking and measuring trees to be felled for timber to make Wellington bombers, Mosquito fighter bombers, as well as pit props and other ,uses.

My name is Linda King, and my mother, Mrs Audrey King, was attached to the Timber Corps, marking trees for felling. I can’t remember exactly when I first knew this, as it was talked about regularly, with Mum telling anecdotes about her time helping the war effort. It was probably this that informed me as a child that there had been a big war, which had ended only 13 years before I was born. Being in my 60s, now I can easily think back 13 years, and it does not seem very long ago, so the end of WW2 was still very much a recent memory for my parents at this time.

Who was Audrey King before becoming a Lumberjill? Do you know why she signed up to become a Lumberjill?,

Mum left school in her little Sussex village in 1939, aged 14, and went into service, working away from home with little time off. She felt she could do more good than kowtowing to people who could quite easily look after themselves, and always seemed to have plenty of everything, despite rationing. Her father ran a small village garage, and it was always the well-off people who never paid their bills, which coloured her judgment! 

Her father saw how miserable she was. He knew someone who was able to get her a job - he was afraid of her going into a munitions factory. So he spoke to his friend Les, who worked for the Forestry Commission in charge of Lumberjills locally and got mum a job in 1940-41. She joined the Timber Corps at 17 years old. She was the youngest in the team, but the only country girl, so she could advise the older "townie" girls. Her job was to mark with paint selected trees, once tripping and splashing it all over Les, her boss, and once disturbing a wasp, which stung his ear!

What experiences did Audrey have as a Lumberjill, and how did they affect her?

Audrey really enjoyed the work, although it was physically demanding. The other two girls and her boss were out in all weathers and sometimes in digs which weren’t very nice. One story she told was about a wet, cold winter day, when they were all soaked to the skin, and the boss said, 'We can’t do any more today, so we’re all going to the pictures in Horsham.' I don’t know what film they saw, but it was great to get in somewhere warm!

She and her friends cycled miles to and from village dances and looked out for each other. Her dad running the village garage could be handy to any car or motorbike owning servicemen she met. Landladies she encountered varied from kind and thoughtful to penny-pinching and mean with the blankets in winter.

What happened at the end of the war?

"We were aware from an early age that mum felt that their contribution to the war effort was largely ignored in favour of the agricultural women's land army, a resentment she would share with any and everyone."

Linda said: “When the war ended, Mum and the other Land Army members had to return their uniforms and were given a few clothing coupons. Nothing else. 60 years later,, Gordon Brown recognised their efforts and they were issued with a commemorative badge. After Mum died, I passed it on to our niece, who is very proud to wear it on Remembrance Day parades.”

Bill added: “Her time in the Timber Corps made a profound effect on her - friendships made, losses and hardships endured but a measure of fun and independence which made settling to marriage and housewifery very difficult for her and I suspect she suffered a measure of depression, alleviated by part time jobs, driving her own car and the company of her wonderful children (who's writing this?). She told us once that she regretted leaving forestry and would have enjoyed a career in woodland management, acknowledging the impossibility of this at the time.

"Mum was very glad she was able to contribute to Britain's war effort; likewise, our father was on reserved occupation in the aircraft industry. They both did their bit to help during difficult and frightening times. We are very proud of them."

Is there an object, photograph, or place that reminds you of Audrey? What’s the story behind it?

Bill said: “Mum always enjoyed visiting the little woodland that I own, once finding a self-seeded oak which I dug up and protected from marauding deer.  This is now about 50cm tall, known as "Mum's Oak" and where I scattered half her ashes, the other half by brother Dave on the South Downs near where she spent her days as a Lumberjill.”