JOAN Miller has waited for every British prime minister since Winston Churchill to recognise her ability to swing an axe. 

In Melbourne today her patience was rewarded when she received a certificate and an enamel brooch from the British government in thanks for her contribution 70 years ago to the war effort.

Mrs Miller, 89, was a member of the Women's Land Army Timber Corps, a force that may never receive the credit it deserves for helping Britain through two world wars.

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As a member of the corps she was sent out with an axe to fell trees and clear bush.

"I started with a 7lb axe when I was 18, but by the time we were finished, I could swing a 14lb one quite well," Mrs Miller said.

Apart from strong shoulders and sore hands, she had little to show for the experience.

"I know that Winston Churchill tried to have the land girls recognised, but it never got through," she said.

"It's been a long, long time, but I'm as proud as I could be to have this piece of paper and this badge, and so proud for all the girls I served with."

The British government established the unit in World War I because of a shortage of labour caused by the war, particularly in agricultural areas.

The organisation was revived with the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and by 1944 there were 80,000 women volunteers working on the land.

Mrs Miller, who was from Bury St Edmunds, in England's east, and her group, would cut down 900 trees a day.
"They were used as pit posts in the mines," she said.

"We land girls lopped them, sized them and shipped them. It was very hard work.

"We were either hot, wet and hungry or cold, wet and hungry.

"But it was wonderful."

One source of wonder, she said, was the presence around the women's camp of four army and three air force bases.
"We were always being invited to their dances," she said.

"You could go along, but you had to be on the last bus home at night, or you were out the door."

Mrs Miller always made the last bus, but still managed to meet her husband of 30 years at one of the dances.

She received her badge and certificate from British Consul General to Melbourne Stuart Gill who said some 30,000 women had applied for the awards when they were announced last year.

AAP