Wartime Romance in the ATS

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Ann Redgrave of Norfolk Adult Education’s reminiscence team on behalf of Elizabeth Clark and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I joined the ATS against the family’s wishes, at the age of 18 at the beginning of the war. Eventually I ended up in Southern Command where I was with a completely different set of people, including members of the nobility. We were based on Salisbury Plain. I ended up with a Commission even though I didn’t want it. At one point I was a Sergeant Major which is the best position you can possibly have in the army.

I was sent for to go to London three times, even though I hadn’t applied for a commission and didn’t want them. The third time I said to them “Now look here. I’ve been sent for three times and I’m still the same person I was the first time you saw me. My father was still a clothier and I went to Leeds Girl’s High School. Why on earth have you sent for me again?” They looked at me very pityingly and said “We’re scraping the barrel”, which put me in my place! They had run out of people who were willing to take Commissions and hence their interest in me.

I came out of the ATS after being sent for again. They wanted to spend someone on a special mission and my name had been put forward. I said “Now wait a minute, hold your horses. I can’t do anything, because I’m expecting a baby”. So that was that, and I came out of the ATS as soon as I could. My husband was in the Forces too. I met him in Leeds. Two bods had come to interview me at home. They were so full of themselves that I wrote and said that I wanted to withdraw my name from the ATS as I couldn’t be dealing with people who thought they were the bee’s knees when they’re obviously not. The woman who was trying to form a company came to se me and said that war was coming and that they were not prepared. She asked me to help her form a company, which we did together. I was in the Church Institute in the village and my job was based in the village rather than at the barracks. I had to keep an eye on what my girls were doing. The girls kept coming down talking about ‘Nobby Clark’ saying that he was the funniest man they had ever met.

One day I went down to the barracks and he was in charge of security there. It was my job to go down to the officers who employed my girls to make sure they were satisfied with their work. My future husband was sitting there and I looked up, and he looked down, and that was it — love at first sight. I felt as though I had been struck. He came down, and every office I went into that day, he was there. We eventually got married in the village church. That day we left one person on duty and the entire company came out to the village to the wedding. We had a little gathering at my home afterwards but couldn’t have everyone along to that so just invited the Sergeant Major. The whole Company was marched through the village to catch the tram back to the barracks in Leeds. For my wedding I wore a suit and hat which I have only recently thrown away. It wasn’t a white wedding because I couldn’t bare the thought of wearing a white dress. Two friends who had a clothes shop helped me choose the suit and I felt very smart in it. After the wedding my husband and I were in the same area for a while, but then he was commissioned and sent off.

My mother used to be furious during the bombing about being in the air raid shelter. She would sit there saying: “If I’m going to die I want to die comfortably in my bed. I’m going back upstairs”. She was a wonderful lady. I lived at home most of the time I was in the ATS, before going down to Southern Command. I had a very interesting time on Salisbury Plain. There were quite a few members of the aristocracy there and on one occasion one of them got a phone call and I took a message. The message was to be at the railway station on a particular day where she would be having supper with “Mr and Mrs Smith”. This of course was code for the King and Queen. I met all sorts of interesting people down there.

I hope to Heaven that we never have another war like that.

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