Tommyatkins.org WW2 British Infantry Re-enactment group

Meet the Girls

In 1938 the government decided to establish the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). An advisory council was set up and included representatives of the Territorial Army, the Women's Transport Service and the Women's Legion. It was decided that the ATS should be attached to the Territorial Army and that the women would receive two-thirds of the soldiers' pay.
The Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service was official launched on 9th September, 1938. The first women recruited worked as cooks, clerks and storekeepers.

After the outbreak of the Second World War 300 members of the ATS were sent to France. On the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in May 1940, ATS telephonists were some of the last people to leave the country.

It was now decided to dramatically increase the size of the ATS. Women aged between 17 and 43 were allowed to join the service. However, WAAC veterans of the First World War were accepted up to the age of fifty. By September 1941 the ATS has 65,000 members. Their range of duties were also expanded and women now served as office, mess and telephone orderlies, drivers, postal workers and ammunition inspectors. The intention was to free as many men as possible for service at the Front. The girls of the ATS eventually did many jobs that they were not originally intended to do, such as helpers on the Anti - Aircraft guns. The girls were in charge of the equipment used for spotting enemy aircraft. Although not offically allowed to fire the guns themselves
On 18th December 1941, the National Service Act was passed by Parliament. This legislation called up unmarried women aged between twenty and thirty. Later this was extended to married women, although pregnant women and mothers with young children were exempt from this work.
Women could choose to join one of the auxiliary services - Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) or the Women's Transport Service (FANY). Women in the ATS served as volunteers with the British Army until given full military status in July 1941.

Women also joined the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) to help in supplying a wide variety of emergency services at home. Another option was to become a member of the Women's Land Army and help on British farms. By 1943 around 90 per cent of single women and 80 per cent of married women were involved in war work.