Our photo gallery today celebrates some of the many Essex women who were really cutting it during the Second World War.

They were also ploughing it, driving it, planting it and building it- rolling up their sleeves and throwing themselves into roles that had been filled by men who had gone off to fight.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, women - just like they had done during the First World War- were quick to play their part, taking on roles in heavy industry, but also joining the women’s auxiliary services - from Land Army roles to ship-building to ambulance driving.

Our gallery features seven such women carrying out war work across the county.

One of the photos shows pianist music hall actress Nora Blaney driving a dustcart in Basildon.

At this time in her life she was married to surgeon Basil Hughes but when war broke out she elected to don her gardening overalls to drive carts for Basildon Council.

Nora was a huge star in the 1920s and 1930s, performing alongside her performing partner Gwen Farrar. The pair are today considered LBGT icons.

Another image is of Kathleen Garnham helping to carry a stretcher in an ambulance depot.

Kathleen was one of Britain’s leading amateur golfers prior to the war. Her family were founding members of the Naze Golf Club in Walton-on-the-Naze, where her father was chairman and her mother was ladies captain.

Kathleen had been a member of the successful British team which toured the United States in 1933 where she won that year’s Florida State Championship, the Sedgefield Medal Tournament and reached the final of the South Atlantic Tournament.

After the war she was stilling playing in - and winning golfing tournaments across the globe.