Christian Fraser-Tytler
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Christian Helen Fraser-Tytler
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(née Shairp; 23 August 1897 – 1 July 1995) was a member of the Scottish
landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...
and a senior officer in Britain's Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.


Early life

Christian Fraser-Tytler was born at Elie in Fife, the daughter of John Campbell Shairp, a lawyer and the 9th Laird of Houstoun, Uphall, in
Linlithgowshire West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the Av ...
, and his wife Harriet Caroline, daughter of Sir Thomas Erskine, 2nd Baronet of Cambo. She was educated at home by a governess. In 1917, during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, she joined the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...
as a clerical officer.'Christian Fraser-Tytler', ''Times'', 13 July 1995.'Shairp of Houstoun', ''Burke's Landed Gentry'', 1937.'Erskine', ''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage'', 1953.


Marriage

In 1919 she was working with the British delegation to the negotiations for the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
. There she met Major Neil Fraser-Tytler of
Aldourie Aldourie ( gd, Allt Dobharaidh meaning ''dark water'' or ''stream water'') is a small crofting village on the east shore of Loch Ness. It lies about southwest of Inverness and is within the council of Highland, Scotland. Aldourie Castle, seat ...
and Balnain, Inverness-shire, who had won a DSO and
Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...
with the
Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...
(RFA) during the recent war. They were married on 19 June 1919, and she became the Châtelain of
Aldourie Castle Aldourie Castle is in Scotland, situated on Strath Dore, between the southern banks of Loch Ness and the Glen leading onto Drumashie Moor. The parkland of extends northeast and southeast of the house. Lying close to the village of Aldourie, it ori ...
on the shores of Loch Ness.'Fraser-Tytler of Aldourie', ''Burke's Landed Gentry'', 1937. Neil Fraser-Tytler continued in the Territorial Army in the 1920s, commanding his old Inverness battery in the 75th (Highland) Brigade, RFA, and being promoted to
Brevet Brevet may refer to: Military * Brevet (military), higher rank that rewards merit or gallantry, but without higher pay * Brevet d'état-major, a military distinction in France and Belgium awarded to officers passing military staff college * Aircre ...
Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in 1924. He also published his wartime letters to his father under the title of ''Field Guns in France''. However, his health became increasingly poor, believed to be the result of having been gassed during the war. He died in 1937 after a long illness through which his wife nursed him.


Auxiliary Territorial Service

In 1938, as international tensions rose towards the
Munich Crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, the British government established the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as the women's branch of the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. 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 The Camerons of Erracht were a minor noble Scottish family and a branch of the Clan Cameron, a Highland Scottish clan. In Scottish Gaelic they are known as the ''Sliochd Eòghain mhic Eòghain'' (the children of Ewen, son of Ewen). History Origin ...
tartan rather than khaki. After the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Fraser-Tytler's organisational abilities were recognised and she was posted to the Adjutant-General's Department at the
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
and soon ran AG16, responsible for recruiting and organising the ATS alongside the ATS Directorate (AG15), under the Chief Controller, first
Jean Knox Jean Marcia Montagu, Baroness Swaythling, CBE (née Leith-Marshall; 14 August 1908 – 13 December 1993), first married name Knox, was Director of the Auxiliary Territorial Service from July 1941 to October 1943. Early life She was born on 14 ...
and later Dame Leslie Whateley. Fraser-Tytler had become well known to the
Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
when they inspected ATS units, and it is reported that when
King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...
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 Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...
). 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 93rd Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery was an all-female British air defence unit during World War II, formed in October 1942 and disbanded in July 1945. History Searchlights were of great importance in the Second World War as they were need ...
) that was almost wholly female. By the time Fraser-Tytler joined AA Command at its headquarters at Hillingdon House,
Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...
, 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 Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
), and then to counter the attacks by
V-1 flying bombs The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany as ...
(codenamed 'Divers').
Operation Diver Operation Diver was the British codename for countermeasures against the V-1 flying bomb campaign launched by the German in 1944 against London and other parts of Britain. Diver was the codename for the V-1, against which the defence consisted of ...
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. During the winter of 1944–45 the V-1 attacks were switched to
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
and
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
, 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 __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer Officer's Decoration when the Te ...
.


Voluntary service

On leaving the ATS at the end of World War II, Christian Fraser-Tytler returned to Aldourie Castle and took up voluntary work. Locally, she organised the building of the village hall and founded the local branch of the Women's Rural Institute. She became a
Justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
, led the Women's Voluntary Service in Inverness-shire and
Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty ( gd, Ros agus Cromba), sometimes referred to as Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use, the latt ...
, and played a prominent part in the
Young Women's Christian Association The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
, serving as Scottish representative on the national executive.


Family

She had two daughters by Lt-Col Neil Fraser-Tytler: * Ann Fraser-Tytler, born 17 April 1920, married, 4 October 1947, her kinsman Sir Thomas David Erskine of Cambo, 5th Baronet. * Mary Hermione Fraser-Tytler (born 6 June 1922 – died 29 December 2021), married Rear-Admiral Sir Patrick Morgan, KCVO, CB, DSC.


Death

Christian Fraser-Tytler died on 1 July 1995.


Notes


References

* ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' * ''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage'' * Lt-Col Neil Fraser-Tytler, ''Field Guns in France'', London: Hutchinson, 1922//Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2003, (also published as ''With Lancashire Lads and Field Guns in France'', Manchester: John Heywood, 1922).
Sir Frederick Pile's despatch: "The Anti-Aircraft Defence of the United Kingdom from 28th July, 1939, to 15th April, 1945" ''London Gazette'' 18 December 1947
* Brig N.W. Routledge, ''History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55'', London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, .


External sources


British Military History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser-Tytler, Christian 1897 births 1995 deaths Auxiliary Territorial Service officers Anti-Aircraft Command officers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Elie and Earlsferry British Army personnel of World War II Civil servants in the Foreign Office