ATS
The Auxiliary Territorial Service were the Women's Army in Great Britain during World War II. The ATS was formed on Sept 9th 1938. The intention was to enable as many men as possible for service at the Front by using women for these jobs instead.
Poster campaigns were used throughout the war to recruit enough people into the army. The posters used to recruit ATS women were deemed far too glamorous by Winston Churchill and had to be tamed down.
The work they were given was far from glamorous, they were mainly used as drivers, working in mess halls peeling potatoes, as cleaners and on anti-aircraft guns.
The ATS women were given between three and six weeks training and their weekly wage was between 2/6- (12 pence) and 12/6- (62 pence).
The ATS continued in existence until Feb 1st 1949, when it became the Women’s Royal Army Corps, the WRAC. The WRAC was disbanded in 1992.
"We went to Pontefract first from Liverpool Street and we did our six weeks basic training, which is square bashing, innoculations, they all fainted around me and I thought ‘what they doing’ because I never faint touch wood. Because the war was coming to an end they had us scrape…. We were in the barracks at Pontefract and they had us scraping all the blackout tape off the windows to keep your arms going and they were all going, ‘Uurggh’ and going to bed. This idiot don’t faint. Anyway we did our square bashing, we went through the gas chamber." Betsy
"I’d like to be a driver. Right we’ll give you an aptitude test. So you go in this room, lovely. They gave me a box of Meccano! They said build whatever it was. Well I’d done it in about five minutes, my brother always had Meccano for Christmas and I liked it better than dolls." Betsy
"A friend and I at Dickinson’s went to the local recruitment office and were accepted to train as drivers, although at the time I could not drive. I was trained to drive, on mainly army lorries and passed my driving test in an army lorry." Iris
"So I went in the army and as I say we went down to Camberley for our driving instruction. It, the Queen had been there the intake before. You know you see her looking in a…. well that was me in the next intake looking in the engine and learning to drive and she came back to us and spoke to us and had a chat with us. Inspected us on the parade ground, lovely lady, I’ve loved her ever since and she’s the same age as me!" Betsy
"There were a number of girls, no men allowed, and our main task was to drive many ranks, mainly Colonels, to locations around the Home Counties. We all had our own allocated car, Humber Snipe, very nice car for the time, which we had to look after and had regular inspections, for ourselves and our car, making sure both were kept clean." Iris
"I was in the ATS for about 4 years and after meeting my husband, who during this time was serving as a soldier, I then left. The friendships I gained with the other girls lasted for many years and sadly only faded out as we all got older and many are no longer with us, although there is still a couple I see on occasions and we still talk about our memories of these times, as though they were only yesterday. " Iris