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- Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

Auxiliary Territorial Service




18th Sep 1939 Move

1st March 1940 Inspection

26th September 1941 Demonstration

24th Nov 1941 Training  

THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1939-45 ATS wireless operators learning Morse code at the Special Operators Training Battalion at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, 24th of November 1941. © IWM (H 15784)


21st Mar 1942 Parade

July 1942 Reorganisation

Aug 1943 Reorganisation

Aug 1943 Move

6th Nov 1944 On the Move

19th Nov 1944 On the Move

7th May 1945 Position


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

Auxiliary Territorial Service

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of Auxiliary Territorial Service from other sources.


The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

Announcements



    25th Annversary

  • 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
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  • 19th Nov 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 264989 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
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    If you enjoy this site

    please consider making a donation.

Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.




Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home.

If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.



Want to know more about Auxiliary Territorial Service?


There are:1332 items tagged Auxiliary Territorial Service available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


Rosalie Gladys Tyler

My aunt Rosalie Gladys Tyler and my mother, Ivy Tyler both, joined the A.T.S. from their home in Potters Bar, Middlesex, now Hertfordshire. While traveling to Scotland to visit their brother, who was in hospital there suffering from Malaria caught in the Desert while serving with the Army, they met two young Air Force chaps. One was my father, Charlie Lancashire, from Edinburgh.

As my Aunt and my mum have both passed away I cannot supply more information. If anyone remembers any of the above I would love to hear from them.

Angela Lownie



Pte. Joyce Sadler 904 AA (M) Transport Coy Royal Army Service Corps

In Uniform (coloured by her son)

Joyce Saddler served with 904 AA (M) Transport Coy RASC She enlisted at Manchester on 30/3/1942 giving her trade on enlistment as Theatrical

My mother was born 30th Jan 1920 at Salford, Lancs. From 1939 she was employed in the theatrical trade as a dancer/singer and was a regular member of a troupe that toured around the country. On the 16th of April 1941 she had been performing a matinee at the Rex theatre in High Wycombe with the star of the show Al Bowlly, with whom she was great friends, at the close of the matinee she was asked by the theatre management if she would stay for the evening show to replace one of the other girls who had called in sick. Although arrangements had been made to join Al Bowlly at his residence in Dukes court, Piccadilly my mother decided to remain at the theatre for the evening show. Al Bowlly however was killed that night when a German land mine exploded next to his residence killing him instantly.

Though I never asked if this was the reason she enlisted I am sure it must have had some bearing on her decision. Her Service Book records she was awarded her Service Chevron to drive 3 ton army transport vehicles and later awarded 'Skill at arms badge', she was discharged on the 14th Oct 1945.

She eventually emigrated to Western Australia where she died on the 1st Oct 1977.

Mike Sadler



Sergeant Audrey Allan

Audrey Allan

My grandmother, Audrey Allan (Miller), passed away this past October at the age of 90. She served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, reaching the rank of Sergeant (Section Leader), at least until 1942 and perhaps into 1943; I know she was in a mixed-gender anti-aircraft battery and manned a radio, sending verbal IFF's (identification, friend or foe) to inbound aircraft. I don't know which unit(s) she served with, but perhaps the "St. Anne's-on-Sea" note on the back of one of the pictures will provide some information should anyone seek it.

Darren Miller



Linda Cockgrave

My mum Linda Cockgrave was a barrage balloon rigger during the War. My Dad served with the Royal Norfolk Regiment.

John Heaton



Eithne Swanton (d.21st November 1944)

During the second World War the Allied and German soldiers, who were killed in Goirle, Noord Brabant, the Netherlands and in the neighbourhood, were buried at the Roman Catholic cemetery from the parish St. Jan in Goirle.

I am looking for information about the only women who is buried in Goirle. Her name is EITHNE SWANTON, Auxiliary Territorial Service, service nr. W/297570, age 28 years old, died 21 November 1944.

After the war the remains of the German soldiers were reburied in Ysselsteijn (near Venray) and most of the allied soldiers were reburied in Bergen op Zoom (War Cemetery and Canadian War Cemetery) and in Leopoldsburg (Belgium, War Cemetery).

At this moment there are 27 Allied graves. Every year we commemorate the victims of World War II, both soldiers and civilians. We know their names, but who were the persons behind the names? What were their lives before they died? Where did they come from? How did they die? Under what circumstances?

It is my intention to give the victims a face, to write and keep the story behind the gravestones because we always will remember the soldier who died for our liberty. We can forget names, but not faces. I will try to write down all their stories for the next generation so they will know who was commemorated.

Maybe someone can help me in this matter. Send me a letter or an e-mail with additional information, a photograph or a copy of any personal document, which I can use for The Memory Book or a website.

Thank you in advance for your help

Gerrit Kobes



Dora Stanley

I am looking for anyone who knew my mother, Dora Stanley. She enlisted in the ATS in 1941 in Newcastle Upon Tyne. In 1944 she married Terry Looby, and she left the ATS in 1945. She was stationed in North Shields and Yorkshire.

Any information about her or the ATS in the North of England would be welcomed.

Tracey Crossey



Elizabeth "Betty" Banks 11th Caithness Company

My Nana, Elizabeth "Betty" Banks, who brought me up, was in the ATS from Feb 1939 until the war ended, Her number was W/9265. She would love to contact anyone who was in her unit or any of the courses she went on as a PT instructor. I'm hoping to get some photos from her that you can put on your website but wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction to get her some information.

The details I have are: 11th Caithness Company, then sent to Orkney for 3 years, then Inverness Cameron Barracks, then Redford Barracks Edinburgh, then became PT instructor and attended courses in Scotland and Durham, Aldershot and Newton Abbot.

Kirsty Bailey



Mary Theresa Brennan

My mother, Mary Theresa Brennan, served in the ATS during World War Two. I am looking for her ATS service number, so that I can apply for further information about her.

Elizabeth Vayro



Eleanor Hamlin

I have an interesting story regarding my Auntie Queenie, Eleanor Hamlin, who was in the A.T.S.(Auxiliary Territorial Service) throughout the war in spite of being deaf. I have inherited her calling up paper at Blyth, Northumberland, her paybook, discharge papers and medals. She volunteered in August 1939, before the war started, and was called up in October, W/17926. According to her paybook, she didn’t have a medical until 1942 and was given A.W.1! In 1944 she was downgraded to B.W.4. She spent the last two years at Catterick. Her commanding officer was Mrs. Edna M. Sheel of Barking, Essex, and for the last seven months of service, she was her batman. She was very adept at lip reading but couldn’t necessarily hear a telephone or fire bell or air-aid siren. On one occasion she was escorted home on leave to make sure she arrived safely because there was a threat of bombing in Leeds. I have just read Roy Terry’s book, "Women at Khaki", which partially explains what could have happened. Until April 1941, the A.T.S. was a voluntary organisation and her medical occurred as conscription was introduced. One complication is that her pay book is only a certified copy up until 1944. In 1942 she was with the 52nd A.A. and finally discharged from G company, Catterick in October 1945. I would love to know more about her service and if anyone remembers her.

Edward Hamlin



L/Cpl. Lilian Joyce French HQ Hants & Dorset

Longford Castle 1942

Lilian Joyce Parfitt and friend 1942

Joyce and Les, Sept 1942, wedding with both in uniform

Mum was always known as Joyce (she did not like her first name). She told me that she was sent to London to learn touch typing. She was based at Longford Castle and she remembered having to run up and down the spiral stairs. Their insignia was an angel. >She said that they used bicycles a lot and also said that if the girls thumbed a lift when they went out, she stayed at the back as she was quite skinny.

On 15th of September 1942 Lilian Joyce French married Leslie George Parfitt in Hove Sussex. They met when Les was stationed in Brighton he was with the Royal Engineers and they were there to mine the front and piers.

Angela Joy Hills









Recomended Reading.

Available at discounted prices.



Girls Behind the Guns: With the Auxiliary Territorial Service in World War II

Dorothy Brewer Kerr




Debs at War: 1939-45

Ann de Courcy


an amazing book. It contains the lives of real women who went from living in unbelievable luxury (or not in the case of some - grand homes and titles did not automatically mean luxury) to how they played their parts in the war, often in menial, dirty, usually risky if not downright dangerous jobs. All because their fathers, brothers and all the young men they knew were doing their bit - so the girls were going to make damned sure they did their bit too. Diaries and interviews are quoted - this book goes from childhoods through to the Debs seasons, call up (more usually volunteering), the various jobs they did; all the while trying to keep in touch with their friends and boyfriends. Terribly innocent about sex, lesbianism, childbirth, cooking, they went from filthy jobs to eating at the Ritz - often still in uniform or overalls. To say that I am impressed by what they did is a total understatement. I really don't know whether we would meet our country's need in such a way today.
More information on:

Debs at War: 1939-45



British Women's Uniforms in Colour Photographs (World War 2)

Martin Brayley & Richard Ingham


This reference book contains the uniforms of the women's services during World War II. Nearly 200 colour photographs of rare, original uniforms from private collections are featured with detailed explanatory text. This really is an extraordinarily good book if you're looking for details of women's uniforms from the WWII period. Every page has a large, clear photograph of a uniform (worn by a modern model, but with 40s styling), plus detail shots of shoes, insignia, berets and so on.


The 1940s Look: Recreating the Fashions, Hairstyles and Make-up of the Second World War

Mike Brown


"The 1940s Look" tells you everything you need to know about the fashions of wartime Britain and the impact that rationing, the Utility scheme, changing tastes and the demands of everyday life had on the styles people wore. People had to 'Make Do and Mend' - with varying degrees of ingenuity and success. Hair styles, glasses, jewellery, and tattoos were essential in creating your own fashion statement. Women's magazines advised readers on the difficulties of dressing growing children, offered instructions for making clothes and accessories, and hosted debate over whether by dressing up, women were helping or hindering the war effort. Thoroughly researched and lavishly illustrated, "The 1940s Look" tells you how civilian men, women and children dressed - and why they looked the way they did during the Second World War. It draws on contemporary sources including government advice, periodicals and books, and benefits from an entertaining narrative by author Mike Brown.


Voices of The Codebreakers: Personal Accounts of the Secret Heroes of World War II

Michael Paterson


a comprehensive look at the undercover war, revealing just how much of WWII was won away from the battlefields and how each side desperately tried to get into the 'mind set' of their enemies' code makers.From the British cryptologists to the Navajo Indians whose codes helped win the war against Japan, this book reveals the stories of extraordinary people and their chance finds, lucky accidents, dogged determination and moments of sheer brilliance, to expose how the war was really won.It includes an intriguing glimpse of the early history of the computer - its spectacular uses and subsequent development. It features vivid first-hand accounts from the staff of Bletchley Park, French and Dutch resistance fighters, the American secret agents and members of the Services Liaison Unit who passed on vital coded information to field commanders. It also includes a 16 page plate section with rare archive photographs.


Wartime: Britain 1939-1945

Dr Juliet Gardiner


Juliet Gardiner's 'Wartime' provides a marvellously rich, and often entertaining, recreation of life on the Home Front, 1939-45, drawing on an enormous range of oral testimony and memoir.
More information on:

Wartime: Britain 1939-1945



Girls in Khaki: A History of the ATS in the Second World War

Barbara Green




Sergeant: A World War II Account of a Young Village Choir Girl to a Responsible Position in the ATS

Elsie M. Crossley










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