Father: Sir James Philip Reynolds DSO, 1st Baronet Reynolds of Woolton, County Lancaster, a cotton merchant and MP for Liverpool Exchange 1929-32 (d. 1932); Mother: Elizabeth Emelia Leila [Roskell] She was the 5th of their 5 daughters (followed by 3 sons) Ed. Newhall Convent of the Holy Sepulchre, Chelmsford Presented at Court (debutante) in June 1927 She owned G-ABMJ, a 1931 Robinson Redwing 2
Starting on 1 March 1931, she made an attempt to fly from Hanworth to Cape Town, via the West Coast ('French') route, in the Blackburn Bluebird IV G-ABGF which her father bought for her:
They flew over France, reached Bathurst, Gambia on 16 March and left there on the 2 April, but problems with the aeroplane in Sierra Leone forced her, and her co-pilot Flt-Lt W G Pudney, to abandon the attempt, and the aeroplane, there on the 11 April. The Bluebird was written off - 'damaged beyond repair due to corrosion' - in May 1931. See https://pjhap.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/flight-of-delphine-reynolds-and-w-g-pudney/ They arrived back in Plymouth on 11 May, Flt-Lt Pudney having been "ill all the way home with malarial fever". She brought back a snake. She later owned G-ACKY, a 1933 DH.85 Leopard Moth, and in 1934 flew from Rome to Croydon "with only two stops for petrol"
"Miss Delphine Reynolds, the attractive youngest daughter of the late Sir James Reynolds, M.P. is doing wonderful work in aiding German refugees. A few weeks ago she went over to Germany and Austria, where she arranged with the authorities to bring away at least thirty men and women who could not otherwise have left the country. The refugees are fortunate, for they are now staying at the Reynolds’s town residence in Hans Place, all expenses of their upkeep being defrayed by Miss Reynolds herself. She is, by the way, a very keen airwoman who knows not the meaning of fear. She has frequently flown to the Continent, and some years ago undertook a flight to the Cape" - Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 07 March 1939 prev: Mechanized Transsport Corps Lorry Driver, posted to Thorneycroft Ltd, from 6 Jun 1941 pre exp: 510 hrs on 'Gypsy, Klemm, Desoutter, Bluebird, Puss and Leopard Moth'
m. Jan 1944 in Oxford, Dr. Ernst (or Arnost) Schwenk Polak (d. 1948) m. 1963 in Thanet, Kent, John B Trinick She made a return trip to Sierra Leone in 1978 d. 16 Jun 1993 - Kendal, Cumbria
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RAeC 1930
