page_title: Christian Fraser-Tytler
section_title: Auxiliary Territorial Service
hierarchical_section_title: Christian Fraser-Tytler / Auxiliary Territorial Service
caption_attribution_description: English: ATS girls operate a Telescope, Identification A.A. at a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun site firing against V-1 flying bombs, 21 July 1944. ATS girls operate a Telescope, Identification A.A. at a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun site firing against V1 flying bombs, 21 July 1944.
context_page_description: Christian Helen Fraser-Tytler was a member of the Scottish Landed gentry and a senior officer in Britain's Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II.
context_section_description: In 1938, as international tensions rose towards the Munich Crisis, the British government established the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as the women's branch of the British Army. Christian Fraser-Tytler raised the Inverness unit of the ATS. This was based at the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders' depot and its members wore skirts of the regiment's Cameron of Erracht tartan rather than khaki.
  After the outbreak of World War II, Fraser-Tytler's organisational abilities were recognised and she was posted to the Adjutant-General's Department at the War Office and soon ran AG16, responsible for recruiting and organising the ATS alongside the ATS Directorate (AG15), under the Chief Controller, first Jean Knox and later Dame Leslie Whateley. Fraser-Tytler had become well known to the Royal Family when they inspected ATS units, and it is reported that when King George VI visited the War Office he expressed surprise that she was no longer wearing the Cameron of Erracht tartan kilt. When told that she had been ordered to revert to khaki when she joined the WO, he replied 'Well, we'll have to see about that', and shortly afterwards she was permitted to wear the kilt once more.
  In June 1943 Fraser-Tytler was appointed Deputy Director, ATS, at Anti-Aircraft Command, with the rank of Senior Controller (equivalent to Brigadier). The usual roles for the ATS included drivers, cooks, telephonists, etc, but the imaginative commander-in-chief of AA Command, Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick 'Tim' Pile, had sought to solve his command's manpower issues by introducing women into every role in anti-aircraft units short of actually firing the guns, which was forbidden under Defence Regulations. From 1941 onwards all Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun batteries and regiments coming from the training regiments were designated 'Mixed', with women comprising about two-thirds of their personnel. Despite practical difficulties there were some mixed searchlight batteries and one regiment (93rd Searchlight Regiment) that was almost wholly female. By the time Fraser-Tytler joined AA Command at its headquarters at Hillingdon House, Uxbridge, more than half the total strength of the ATS was employed in or supporting its units.
  During 1944 a large proportion of AA Command's units were moved to Southern England to protect the build-up of troops, shipping and equipment for the forthcoming invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord), and then to counter the attacks by V-1 flying bombs (codenamed 'Divers'). Operation Diver involved the relocation of hundreds of static AA guns to temporary sites along the South Coast of England, with the ATS housed in hastily constructed tented camps until huts could be provided. In the winter of 1944–45 the V-1 attacks were switched to Brussels and Antwerp, and several Mixed HAA regiments were withdrawn from AA Command to defend those cities.
  Christian Fraser-Tytler was appointed a CBE (Military) – one of the first awarded to a woman – in 1941, and received the Territorial Decoration.
caption: ATS personnel operating a rangefinder at a 3.7-inch AA gun site firing against V-1 flying bombs, 21 July 1944.
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