Former land girls from Gloucester who played a vital role in Britain's war effort are being called on to attend the official opening of a memorial that is being unveiled in their honour late this year.
A bronze sculpture of two young women dressed in the uniforms of the land army and timber corps is to be placed at the National Memorial Arboretum, near Lichfield, this Autumn.
Project organisers are now calling for any former WLA or WTC members who served during the first and second world wars, or their relatives, to register their interest in attending the official unveiling.
Trude Holthoff, who is 89, was born and raised in Northumberland and joined the land army during the war. She was posted to Matson to work on Larkham Farm, the site that is now taken over by the Hallmark Hotel near to Gloucester Ski Centre.
Trude, who lives in Longlevens. was one of many women who helped keep Britain going when much of the workforce was away fighting in Europe.
Her son Richard has applied for a place so he can take Trude to the unveiling of the statue.
"Mum is very modest about her part in the war, but like many women in the land army, she played a very important role," he said.
"They worked the land, milked the cows and the lumber jills cut down many trees in the Forest of Dean.
"There is no monument locally that marks their achievement so we are hopeful others will also want to apply to visit the arboretum.
"Mum drove a tractor ploughing the fields and joined up in 1942, she was there for around five years."
The Board of Agriculture organised the Land Army during the first world war, starting activities in 1915. Towards the end of 1917 there were over 250,000 - 260,000 women working as farm labourers, with 20,000 in the land army itself.
With three million men away to fight in the first world war Britain was struggling for labour. The government wanted women to get more involved in the production of food and do their part to support the war effort.
As the prospect of war became increasingly likely in 1939, the government wanted to increase the amount of food grown within Britain. In order to grow more food, more help was needed on the farms and so the government started the Women's Land Army in June that year.
The majority of the Land Girls already lived in the countryside but more than a third came from London and the industrial cities of the north of England.
I The WLA lasted until its official disbandment on October 21,1949.
An application form to attend the memorial unveiling can be obtained from www.womenslandarmytribute.co.uk.
