Biography

Family Background

Margaret Royston Cooke was born in Collingham on the 13th June 1914, the daughter of Alf Cooke, a printer, and his wife, Clara Cooke. Alf and Clara also had a son, also named Alf who was born 4½ years after Margaret.

By 1921 and the census, the family were listed at The Bungalow, Collingham. Alf (Snr) was listed as a printer. Clara was a housewife, and the family were joined by two servants, Alice Eliza May Boulton, a housemaid, and Nellie Wilson who was their cook.

Margaret was educated at Harrogate College and Kings College and St.James' West Malvern. She gained her Oxford and Cambridge School Certificate and a diploma in Domestic Sciences, while at Kings she studied Household and Social Sciences.

The electoral rolls for 1937, 1938 and 1939 show the Cooke family now living at Linton Common, Linton and the 1939 National Registration Lists reveal that Alf, who was now managing director of Alf Cooke Ltd, printers of Leeds, and Clara were now living with two servants, Ethel Fairburn and Irene Atchinson. The 1939 register for the household also contains two redacted lines [Feb 2024]. These lines may represent Margaret and her brother Alf (Jnr) but we suspect that both were elsewhere at the time of the registration, for example because Margaret had already enrolled (on the 28th January 1939) in the 1st West Riding Company of the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Service Record

On the 5th September 1939, Margaret Royston Cooke was attached to 66 Anti-aircraft company in Leeds, part of the anti-aircraft defence of northern and north eastern Britain. Later, Margaret was posted, on the 25th April 1940 to 4 West Riding Platoon, 'C' Company Group 38-40 in Selby and was attached to 49 Searchlight Regiment. At that time of high tension, when air raids were expected as a prelude to an invasion, air defences were paramount. Air defence was organised into a series of Anti-Aircraft Divisions of the Royal Artillery. 49th (West Yorkshire Regiment) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery was, with two other Searchlight Regiments and two Light Anti-Aircraft Regiments of the Royal Artillery, part of 31st Anti-Aircraft Brigade, itself part of 10th Anti-Aircraft Division. 31 AA Bde was responsible for anti-aircraft defence of the West Yorkshire towns and cities and was composed of anti-aircraft gun units and searchlight units.

By 1941 some of the imminent threat of air raids had declined slightly, but anti-aircraft defence remained a high priority, not only for towns and cities, but also for defence of troops, bases, aircraft stations and equipment, and the need for personnel trained in the use of the ever more technical aspects of anti-aircraft defence was continuing to grow. On the 25th April 1941, Margaret was posted to 211 Heavy Anti-aircraft (HAA) Training Regiment of the Royal Artillery and on 30th May 1941 she was promoted to the rank of Second Subaltern (2nd Sub), equivalent of 2nd Lieutenant in the Army. On the 23rd Jan 1942 Margaret was posted to 485 Battery of 139 (Mixed) Heavy Anti-aircraft (39(M) HAA) regiment based in Rotherham.

This regiment, the 139th (Mixed) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, was one of the first 'Mixed' regiments in which women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service were integrated into the unit's personnel. Due to the manpower shortage by 1941, it was proposed that women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) would be brought into the anti-aircraft role. The ATS was by law a non-combatant service, but it was decided that Defence Regulations permitted the employment of women in anti-aircraft (AA) roles other than actually firing the guns. They worked the radar and plotting instruments, range-finders and predictors, ran command posts and communications, and carried out many other duties. With the increasing automation of heavy AA (HAA) guns, including gun-laying, fuze-setting and ammunition loading under remote control from the predictor, the question of who actually fired the gun became blurred as the war progressed. The ATS rank and file, if not always their officers, took to the new role with enthusiasm and 'Mixed' batteries and regiments with the ATS supplying two-thirds of their personnel quickly proved a success. The 139th (Mixed) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment formed at Rotherham, West Yorkshire, on 1 December 1941.

In 1942 Margaret was further promoted, to Junior Commander in the ATS, equivalent to Captain in the Army. Around this point of her ATS career, Margaret underwent several training courses and her service file records her being in Scarborough on the 19th October 1942 while attending a course, and attached to the ATS Officer's School at Egham while on another course (25th October 1943). Early in 1943 Margaret suffered from several bouts of illness, being at home sick from 22nd January 1943 until 6th February 1943. The following year, further bouts of illnes resulted in her being sick in quarters from 12th to the 16th April 1944 and from the 21st April 1944 to the 5th May she was granted sick leave. On the 6th May 1944 she was admitted to Gorleston Hospital but was discharged back to duty on the 24th May 1944 but was immediately granted sick leave until the 7th June 1944.

Eventually on the 10th June 1944 she was posted back to 139(Mixed) Heavy Anti-aircraft regiment and was briefly posted over to 484(M) HAA. On the 12th December 1944 Margaret was posted overseas with 139(M) HAA. This was the first Mixed anti-aircraft unit to serve overseas.

Since February 1944, the Germans had been using flying-bombs and V2 rockets to attack Great Britain, but their launch sites had gradually been over-run after D-Day. However once 21st Army Group had liberated Brussels and Antwerp, these cities became targets for V-1s launched from within Germany, and defences against these weapons, known as 'X' defences, had to be established. The German missiles' small size, high speed and awkward height presented a severe problem for anti-aircraft guns. Experience had shown that state-of-the-art defences including the power-operated, remotely controlled static Mk IIC 3.7-inch HAA gun, which had power traverse and automatic fuze-setting, accompanied by the most sophisticated Radar No 3 Mark V (the SCR-584 radar set) and No 10 Predictor (the all-electric Bell Labs AAA Computer), were required to deal effectively with V-1s, but 21st Army Group's mobile HAA units did not have experience with this equipment. 139th (M) HAA Regiment had the expertise and became the first Mixed unit sent from AA Command to reinforce the Brussels 'X' defences. The regiment was deployed around Nottingham in early November 1944 when it was ordered to move overseas at war establishment. This meant leaving behind one battery and finding 200 ATS reinforcements to bring the other three up to the required strength. Fortunately there was no shortage of volunteers from other units. The regiment's advance parties arrived in Antwerp on 18 November and spent an uncomfortable week in temporary accommodation under V-1 attack before moving on to Brussels. Here they reconnoitred six new 4-gun sites for occupation by 16 December. These sites lacked all provision for a static HAA gun position: there were no gun platforms, access roads, water supply, drainage or accommodation. The Royal Canadian Engineers erected a few huts for the ATS, while the men slept in tents despite the cold weather. The gun platforms required 2000 tons of rubble to be tipped onto soft ground, with another 800 tons for hardstandings, although the access roads were built as single tracks that were blocked by the gun transporters. On arrival the 15-ton static guns had to be lowered precisely onto holdfasts dug into the ground. All other facilities, including cookhouses and latrines, had to be built from scratch. The Brussels city authorities helped with telephone lines, transport and bathing facilities. Two gun positions were ready for action on 22 December 1944.

We cannot tell exactly what Margaret's roll was, or exactly where she was stationed. The Brussels 'X' defences involved an outer line of Wireless Observer Units sited 40 to 50 miles in front of the guns to give 8 minutes' warning, then Local Warning (LW) stations positioned half way, equipped with radar to begin plotting individual missiles. Finally there was an inner belt of Observation Posts (OPs), about 20,000 yards in front of the guns to give visual confirmation that the tracked target was a missile. The LW stations and OPs were operated by teams from the AA regiments. Radar-controlled searchlights were deployed to assist in identification and engagement of missiles at night. The success rate of shooting down the flying bombs by the Brussels X defences had been low at first, but after the arrival of Mk IIC guns and experienced crews from AA Command the results improved considerably, with best results in February and March 1945. The number of missiles launched at Brussels dropped rapidly as 21st Army Group continued its advance, and in the last week the AA defences destroyed 97.5 per cent of those reaching the defence belt.

During her time with 139(M) HAA regiment a serious incident occurred which resulted in the deaths of a number of ATS girls. On Friday 12th January 1945 the British Army had organised a dance evening between Leuven and Tienen and twenty female troops were taken from their camp by lorry. On the way to the dance they successfully crossed the level crossing at the Haachtstraat in Veltem but on their return at around 2am on the night of Friday to Saturday as the lorry crossed back over the level crossing it collided with a passing train and was smashed into a small signal box and burst into flames. At least five ATS girls were killed.

By 27th April 1945, 139th (Mixed) HAA Regiment had been stood down from its role protecting Brussels and on 3 May its personnel were back at Ticknall, near Derby, where the regiment and its three batteries were disbanded, five days before the war in Europe ended on VE Day. On the 9th June 1945 Margaret was taken on strength of Movement Control (MC) Pool of 21st Army Group while she waited for her next posting which was (22nd June 1945) at HQ 21st Army Group. At the end of the war, Margaret was discharged on the 6th October 1945.

After the war

Margaret returned to civilian life in the Wetherby area and in 1946 she appears with her mother on the electoral roll for Linton. About a year later, Margaret married Bryan William Cave-Browne-Cave on the 9th August 1947 in Collingham Church. Bryan Cave-Browne-Cave appears to have worked as a senior executive with the BBC.

Margaret Royston Cave-Browne-Cave (nee Cooke) died on the 5th April 1978 in Lancaster.

Biography last updated 23 February 2024 13:32:43.