During World War 2, Scotland’s Life Changing College was appropriated by the Government and used as a training base for the Auxiliary Territorial Service.  This was a branch of the Army open to women during the war.   Thousands of women received a very rigorous training at Newbattle Abbey in sometimes very harsh conditions.

Elva Wilmot Allan (nee Smith) was one of the women who spent her days doing drills, attending lectures, mending clothes, learning about the Army and the King’s regulations in the winter of 1942.  Following her training at Newbattle Abbey, Elva was sent to various locations throughout the UK, including an artillery camp in Wales and an RAF station in Yorkshire.  Elva commented that the best thing about her time at Newbattle was that she met so many different women from all walks of life.  She still keeps in touch with one lady who went to India after the war and another who was a shepherdess at the Abbey.

The women of the ATS lived in purpose built ‘huts’ which were very cold, basic and impersonal.  These buildings now form part of the Newbattle Abbey Business Park.  If you look closely enough, echoes of the past are still apparent above some of the door lintels to give a clue as to which purpose they served during the war.

Elva would like to call upon former ATS members and their families to commemorate the efforts of the ATS and to donate towards a memorial stone and plaque.  This will be placed in a prominent area of the College grounds.

Please contact Rae McGhee on 0131 66 1921
 raem@newbattleabbeycollege.ac.uk for further information.

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