Margaret Nolan - nee Fulton - Women's Timber Corps 13 Oct 1942 - 6 Mar 1945
The images are attributed to Bella Nolan and were used in the Women’sTimber Corps statue unveiling event at David Marshall Lodge in 2007. It is thought Bella Nolan could be Margaret Nolan nee Fulton.
The image on the left is of a march past in Inverness in 1943 of a group of Timber Corps ladies in full dress uniform. They probably had only just received the items as initially they had to work in their own clothing supplies until work clothing, uniforms and badges followed in 1943. The second image on right is of a lady working on a high stack of probably mining pit prop timber. It is not known if this is Bella. Unfortunately so far no verified image of Bella Nolan has been sourced.
An Index Card in the name of Margaret Fulton from High Street, Coldstream on Tweed reveals her married name as Mrs Margaret Nolan and that she married a New Foundlander following which she resigned in March 1945. (The Scotland’s People website record points to a marriage in 1945 of Margaret Lucy Fulton to William Nolan in Kelso). Margaret or probably Bella enrolled in Oct 1942 and trained at Shandford Lodge before being posted to M/S HGTPD (Ministry of Supply Home Grown Timber Production Dept) Auchterblair Camp, Carrbridge on 3 Dec 1942.
There is one story on the perceptions of some men and male workers that the WTC members had to contend with in the course of their timber working duties. Bella Nolan is recorded saying that on one occasion when her foreman expressed some doubt regarding the ability of girls to cope with tough work she volunteered the next day to work on one end of the crosscut saw with him. “During the day he kept asking me if I was tired and wanted to stop but I kept going despite being quite exhausted. At the end of the day we had cut down 120 trees.”
A lovely story – any more detail and an image of Bella would be very welcome.