REMINISCENCES OF JEAN MACNAUGHTON (Later Mrs Buntin) Women's Timber Corps
The details were courtesy of Forestry Commission Scotland as a result of a their work on a programme on Women's Timber Corps the date of which may have been close to the unveiling of the Timber Jill statue in 2007 at David Marshall Lodge. Sadly no image of image of Jean has been locate but her story below
provides us with yet more details of their less than luxurious life in the timber camps and at work in the forest. The membership card image above provides details of her period of employment as a 'Timber Jill' and the locations in which she served.
"My war work began in 1942 when I joined ‘The Women’s Forestry Service’ as it was called then being part of the Women’s Land Army.
I was sent to Meikleour near Blairgowrie where Mr Bob Allison was in charge and who trained girls before they were sent to other camps. The accommodation was in wooden huts which were very comfortable so long as the wood burning stove was functioning but extremely cold as soon as the fire died out. It was round this stove that we dried our wet clothes.
It was quite a severe winter and the journey on the back of an open bogie was not something to look forward to on a dark winter’s morning.
I remember there was a loud bang and great fizzing noise beside my bed at 5. 3Oam. This was a bottle of Lemonade which I had put there so as not to forget it in the morning. By 7am the whole thing was frozen solid. The work in the woods was very hard but we soon got warmed up even after cleaning the snow around the trees before felling. The ablution hut too was a cold place - there were windows in it but these were up under the eaves and not glazed. The training consisted of being taught how to lay-in, fell, sned, cross-cut and burn the brushwood. After that the draggers, some with horses and some with tractors, hauled the logs to the place where they were loaded on to lorries and driven to the station. All this work was carried out by girls. The biggest logs for pit props were 14’ x 8” and the smaller ones 3’ x 4”. The trees which were too big to be made into props went to the sawmill where the girls worked too. Sometimes there were trees selected for telegraph poles and these were always selected and marked by the District Officer.
We were not given any uniform to begin with having been told to take suitable working clothes and boots in our call up papers. When in June 1942 The W.T.C was formed we were issued with a uniform similar to the W.L.A. but with gabardine instead of corduroy breeches and a nice green beret instead of the “Pork Pie” hat, khaki shirt and plain green tie, brown shoes and khaki stockings and a very warm top coat. For work we were issued with dungarees, shirt, boots and oilskins (the last for working in the rain). The wages at that time were 37/s a week. Deducted from that was 10/s for hut rent and food and sixpence for uniform. I can’t remember whether we had to give up clothing coupons or not.
After training at Meikleour most of the girls went to Glendoick - a new camp 2.5 miles from the Perth Dundee Road. It was when I was there Paramount News made an excellent film and one of the photographs of me was in the New York Times. By 1943 Shandford Training Centre required more people to train the 100 or so girls who came to Shandford each month.
Morag MacKenzie who had joined at the same time and I went to Shandford and were given eight or ten girls in a squad to train. They then dispersed all over Scotland as far as Alness, Dumfries, Strachur, Innerleithen, Alyth, Tulliemet and to private firms and estates.
Every month there was a concert the night before the girls left. My next move was to Roughmount, another new camp about 1.5 miles from Shandford and near the sawmill at Hilton, I was asked to go as Forewoman and Morag Mackenzie was my ‘ganger’. We were responsible for the work in the wood and for camp life. There were 41 girls all together. An office girl, cook, kitchen help and hut duties. Regular visits had to be made to the Food Office in Forfar to work out rations. I remember there was an excellent ration of cheese and although I had cheese sandwiches for lunch almost every day for four years I still like it. On Saturday afternoon in Brechin the Butcher was visited and rations discussed with him.
We held dances in camp and invited the men from the Royal Signals at Montreachmont. Among them there was a pianist who had played with Henry Hall’s Band and we had a piano and a gramophone (Morag and I bought it in Dundee for 3 pounds) so were alright for music.
It was while at Roughmount I had an experience with the rear wheel of a Fordson tractor come off as I went down Tannadice Brae. Fortunately the tractor slewed round and a dry stone dyke stopped the tractor and me from going down a very steep bank on the other side.
From Roughmount I despatched wood to several well known firms. McGregor & Balfour in Dundee got any birchwood as they used that to make pirns (reels) for the jute mills.
Jas Donaldson - Tayport, “Dorman Long, and the pit props went to Boness.
Before we went on piece work Morag and I had the experience of felling a big tree on the Glamis estate. Morag and I wanted to fell this big tree by ourselves but Bill Martin, foreman, made us have the help of two German POWs who were working in forestry, because we had to use a 7ft cross-cut saw. The stump or butt measured one metre across - quite the biggest tree we were ever likely to fell. Our piece work rates were 9 pence or 10 pence a tree. We employed an Italian POW. I say “employed” as ten shillings was deducted from our pay. Sometimes we took down 60-70 trees per day so it was worth our while paying for Tony as he was an excellent worker.
It was extremely hard work and I admired the girls who came from town. Morag and I had been brought up in the country although I had been a hairdresser before 1942 in Glasgow and had experienced some of the Glasgow blitz. I left W.T.C in October 1945 and returned to hairdressing".
Can anyone can provide an image of Jean MacNaughton as a Womens Timber Corps member?