'An ATS FANY Motorcycle Messenger sits on her motorbike as she receives her instructions from a FANY Corporal at the ATS MTC training centre, Camberley.'

Photograph, World War Two, 1941.

Over 250,000 women served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) during World War Two (1939-1945). They served in many overseas theatres of operation as well as in the defence of the United Kingdom, with around 56,000 serving with Anti-Aircraft Command. ATS women also served as motorbike despatch riders, drivers, orderlies, store women and cooks.

The photographic image of the female despatch rider featured in an official recruiting poster for the Auxiliary Territorial Force, entitled, 'ATS Carry the Messages'.