Page 97 - The Wish Stream Year of 2021 (Crest)

BETTY HARVIE-ANDERSON
Auxiliary Territorial Service 1938
Margaret Betty Harvie-Anderson was born in Glasgow on 13th August 1913. Educated at St Leonards School St Andrews, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1938 and was commissioned as a Company Commander on 21st December. The ATS was formed in 1938 as a voluntary corps for women, who were paid two thirds of the rate of their male counterparts. It had its own rank structure such as Control- ler (Colonel), Senior Commandant (Major), Company Commander (Captain and Company Assistant (Second Lieutenant).
Leaving the ATS in 1946, Betty Harvie-Anderson was elected to Stir- lingshire County Council and was awarded the OBE for services to local politics in 1956. In 1959 she won the Westminster seat
Enlisted women were Senior Leader (WO2), Section Leader (Sergeant), Sub Leader (Corpo- ral), Chief Volunteer (Lance Cor- poral) and Volunteer (Private).
In 1941 the ATS was reorganised
after the conscription of unmarried
women under 30 and became
more aligned with the rest of the
Army. Betty Harvie-Anderson served in Scotland in an anti-aircraft unit during the heavy German raids of 1942 and promoted to Major. After initial scepticism it was found that women were per- fectly capable of operating anti-aircraft guns and searchlights and so mixed artillery units were formed to release two thirds of the men for front line tasks. By the end of the war, the ATS num- bered 190,000 and she was a Lieutenant Colo- nel equivalent in a mixed artillery Brigade. On 1st February 1949, the ATS became the Woman’s Royal Army Corps.
TEDDY TINLING
Intelligence Corps 1941
Cuthbert Collingwood Tinling (always known as Ted or Teddy) was born in Eastbourne on 23rd June 1910. Sick with bronchial asthma, his par- ents sent him to the warmer climes of the French Riviera where he flourished, growing to 6 foot seven inches in height. Playing tennis in Nice, he came to the attention of the father of six- time Wimbledon winner Suzanne Lenglen and acted as her personal umpire for hundreds of her practice matches. A useful player, who took part in the doubles at four Wimbledons, he was selected, in 1927, as the liaison between officials and players, a post he held until 1949.
of Renfrewshire East for the Con- servatives heralding the start of a 20-year parliamentary career. From 1970-73 she was the first female Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons and, when she deputised for the Speaker, became the first woman to sit in the Speaker’s Chair, over 20 years before Betty Boothroyd was finally elected to the post. She also infiltrated another male bastion
when she became a member of the influential 1922 committee. An active parliamentarian, she spoke, mostly on Scottish issues, a total of 1477 times during her time at Westminster.
Leaving the Commons in 1979 she was created a life peer as Baroness Skrimshire of Quarter. However, she died only a few days after her introduction to the House of Lords at the age of just 66.
Tinling’s burgeon-
ing career as a
dress designer was
interrupted by the
war and he imme-
diately volunteered
for service. Com-
missioned in 1941
into the Intelligence
Corps, he carried
out a number of
undercover opera-
tions in North Africa and Germany, rising to the
She also infiltrated another male bastion when she became a member of the influential 1922 committee
HISTORICAL 95