W.168 3rd Officer  Mrs Aimee (or Aime) de Neve 
  b. 19 Aug 1919 Gampola, Ceylon  8 May 1944 to 30 Sep 1945 

 aimee de neve 1945   RAeC 1945

     

The Final 7 Women Pilots - Betty Keith-Jopp (W.167), Sue Alexander (W.163), Joan Arthur (W.166), Ruth Russell (W.165), Annette Mahon (W.164), Aimee de Neve (W.168), Katharine Stanley Smith (W.162)

   

 

nee Aime Gholdstein Jonklaas

Father: Ernest Gholdstein Jonklaas, a proctor of Gampola, Mother: Amelia Beatrice Cecile 'May' [Daniel], from Sutton, Surrey

Two brothers, Ernest May Jonklaas and Cecil Frederick Annesley Jonklaas; one sister, Evelyn Ninette

[Her brother Ernest attended Brasenose College, Oxford, played tennis at Wimbledon and represented Oxford University in a tournament in Newport, USA in 1925. He m. Alice Cox, from Woodmere, Long Island, USA in 1926. He d. 1955]

Ed. convent in South India

She and her mother visited the UK in 1925, and Aimee moved to the UK c.1935

Address in 1939: Hendon, London NW, described as a 'Commercial and Secretarial Student'

prev: WAAF

m. Oct 1940 in Marylebone, Rev. Tom Ryder, from New Chapel, Horwich, Lancs

m. 25 Sep 1943 in London, F/O Gilles Peter Cornelia de Neve  322 (Dutch) Sqn, RAFVR (d. 16 Jan 1944 in Spitfire Vb AD428 in a training accident nr Hawkinge, Kent)


Ab initio pilot:

In 'WAAF with Wings', by Yvonne Eveleigh, Aimee described moving on to the Harvard as "Very exciting! The Harvard felt so powerful after all the light aircraft and Marks (her instructor) liked to give me quite frightening shocks to make sure I was awake!" ... "My first Spitfire flight was unbelievable! This beautiful aircraft was actually all mine for a brief time. I was rather worried when I had to do several circuits, as a RAF aircraft had done a belly landing, and I had all the red flares, etc. thrown at me".

Postings: 15FPP, 6FPP

 

Gained her Royal Aero Club Certificate No 20545 on 11 Sep 1945, as part of the 'ATA Wings' Scheme.


Address in 1945: 56 S. Molton St, London W1

m. Oct 1945 iin London, Jan Mowinckel Helen, a Norwegian naval officer from Bergen (three children, Teeny, Erik and Jan Ernest, b. 1946, 1949 and 1953)

 

m. 1996 in London, Mark G  Williams, whom she met in Sri Lanka

Lived in Brighton, Sussex

 

d. Jul 2000 - Spain

Her ashes were interred in 'an English village' on 20 Jul 2000

"Man, woman or child, Aimee made time for them, and if she met a person for the first time her enthusiasm for life left a stranger breathless. Intelligence, bounding energy, beauty and charm were Aime."

see http://www.sundaytimes.lk/000820/plus5.html

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