WAR IN FOCUS

Stunning imagery from throughout history

Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) Privates Hiscocks, Bowron, Morrison and James enjoy a spot of tea during a voluntary ‘domestic science’ course for servicewomen based in the London area. The course was designed to teach servicewomen how to keep a home, including cooking, cleaning and making an afternoon tea spread. Despite this domestic training, the ATS were used to working in a range of logistical and support roles during the war. Women worked in factories, workshops and radar stations, and operated anti-aircraft guns and searchlights – broadly held to be men’s roles. The service of the ATS and other women’s organisations during the war began to change attitudes towards women in the workplace, and their role in society, though there remained a long way to go.