Glasgow memories: When the army took over a Drumchapel farm

The ATS – Auxiliary Territorial Service – was formed from the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), which had been disbanded after the end of World War One.

More than 250,000 women served in the ATS during the Second World War, making it the largest of the women’s services.

The first recruits were employed as cooks, clerks and storekeepers, but duties were eventually expanded and ATS members worked as orderlies, drivers, postal workers and ammunition inspectors. Because of shortages of men, women were also recruited to become radar operators and part of the crews of anti-aircraft batteries, military police and searchlight regiments.

(Incidentally, the current Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service at the age of 18, training in London as a mechanic and military truck driver. She remains the only female member of the royal family to have entered the armed forces and is the only living head of state who served in World War II.)

Eric Flack, who lives in Drumchapel, recalls the farmer at Garscadden Mains telling him what it had been like to have the ATS stationed there.

“The Buchanans farmed there - both brothers had served in World War One and were none too enamoured of the 'officer' class,” he says.

“One of them was a farrier and worked with the horses of War Horse fame. Old Buchanan wasn’t that pleased about having his best potato field taken over by the army.”

Eric laughs: “He was quite clever about it, though and persuaded the army to let the lads and lassies work around the farm in between their duties.

“He got them weeding the turnip fields, cutting logs in Garscadden Wood and learning to use the plough.

“He even had them planting potatoes around the gun pits – it was like something out of Dad’s Army.”

Eric has a photo, given to him by the wife of a Second Lieutenant who served on the Drumchapel gunsite.

READ MORE: Woman whose family home survived direct hit in Clydebank Blitz became inspirational headteacher

“Frank Beard was there in September 1941 – he wrote about his experiences many years later, not just about the gun site, but about what it was like to live in Scotland – New Year parties and Burns Suppers were a whole new experience,” says Eric.

“Frank went on to be a university lecturer and he lived in the south of England.

“In the photo, given to me by his wife, he is pictured with a group of ATS women – although they did not want to be known as ATS, as they wore Royal Artillery men’s uniforms – at the ‘heavy ack ack’ site at Garscadden Mains. I have tried over the years to find out more about them, but with no luck.

“It was something like the second or third mixed unit to be set up and they had lots of photos taken before being posted to near Bishopbriggs.

“That was too near the ‘bright lights’ of Glasgow, so they were quickly moved to Garscadden, now part of Jedworth Avenue in Drumchapel. By 1941, there were something like 80 women and 80 men working on this site.”

Eric also has an aerial photograph of the Garscadden Mains site.

“You can see the craters left by the bombs,” he says. “It’s quite something.”

The Garscadden gunsite was operational during the Clydebank Blitz, explains Eric.

“It was a radar-controlled gunsite that could detect German planes up to 30 miles away,” he says. “The site was “upgunned” in 1947/48 during the cold war. The army moved out in 1955 when the RAF took over air defence. Drumchapel was being built all round it by then.”

Do you know the stories of any of the women in this photograph? Get in touch with Times Past to share your memories.