W.100	2nd Officer	Daphne Elizabeth Abrams
	b. 11 Mar 1916, Plymouth	23 Sep 1942 to 13 Feb 1944

RAeC 1935

via Taniya Morris

 father: William Charles Surry Abrams, mother Elizabeth Louise [Budden]

 prev: Secretary with Imperial Airways; ambulance driver

prev. exp. 8hrs 35min on Gypsy Moth

Address in 1942: 95a Coombe Lane, Bristol

 Postings: 5TFPP, 15FPP

"This pilot came to ATA with very little experience. She worked hard in Class I flying and reached a good standard. She should make a useful ferry pilot and a good officer"

 One accident:

- 8 May 1943, her Spitfire Vb AD555 landed with flaps up, overshot and was seriously damaged after she felt unwell during the circuit

m. 1943 Flt-Sgt Philip Lindley Hanson-Lester, RAF, prev. a theatrical producer (2 children Phillip b.1944, Taniya b. 1946, marriage dissolved)

  RAeC 1939

Off sick from 8 Sep 1943 - Contract Terminated Feb 1944

m. 1956 in Cheshire, Philip Rodney Wallis Robinson

 11 Mar 2016

"Like many of her generation she sees nothing special in what she did"

d. 18 Aug 2017 - Morgannwg House Care Home, Brecon, Wales

Her granddaughter Taniya Morris told me "You may have noticed my name & the unusual spelling of ‘Taniya’.  My mother & I were named after Taniya Whittall who is also on your list of ATA pilots.  I was also a military pilot - serving 17 years in the Army, flying Gazelle & Lynx helicopters in the Army Air Corps & commanding 652 Sqn AAC. So it runs in the family!"

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.143	3rd Officer	Marie 'Monique' or 'Aggie' Jacqueline Agazarian
	b. 17 Jul 1920, Carshalton, Surrey	18 Oct 1943 to 30 Sep 1945

 Father: Le Von Berge Agazarian, originally from Armenia who fled to the UK in 1911, owner of an electrical company; mother: Jacqueline Marie-Louise de Chevalier, from France

Ed. Sacred Heart Convent, Roehampton (School Certificate, 5 credits), RADA and Paris

prev. from Apr-41, VAD attached to East Grinstead Hospital then RAF Uxbridge

Address in 1943: (mother) 7 Park Mansions, Knightsbridge, London

[ab initio pilot]

Two of her three brothers died in WWII; one in the RAF, the other in SOE

Completed "500 hours in Spitfires, Mustangs, Typhoons, Barracudas and Hellcats" as a Class III pilot.

After WWII, she gained her commercial licence and in July 1947 became a pilot for Island Air Charters / Island Air Services (IAS) which flew Proctors and Rapides between Lands End and the Scilly Isles, pleasure trips to Le Touquet and scheduled services to Deauville from Croydon.

Ex-ATA pilot Cecile Power also joined IAS, in November 1947.

Monique became Managing Director of IAS, then Chairman and Chief Pilot.

Island Air Services' first Dragon Rapide, (callsign 'Uncle Fox', although allegedly when Monique was pilot it was 'Auntie Fox''), in 1950. (c) Air-Britain

  Daily Mirror

m. 20 Jul 1949 in Brompton, London, Capt Raymond Charles Rendall (also of IAS, divorced 1973), three daughters Annette Francine, Mary and Lou-Lou

 She competed in the King's Cup air race in 1950 and 1952.

In 1956, Veronica Volkersz wrote that Monique was one of only 7 women flying commercially: -  "Monique Rendall is chief pilot and managing director of Island Air Services"  - and concluded that "The tragedy is that for women, commercial aviation is now - except, possibly, in Russia - a closed field."

[The others were Jackie Moggridge, Jean Bird, Suzanne Ashton, Zita Irwin, Diana Barnato-Walker and Freydis Leaf]

IAS ceased trading in 1959. After it closed, she was a pioneer in promoting flight simulation with Air Training Services Ltd, and published a manual on advanced instrument-flying procedures.

Having reverted to her maiden name, she lived at 84 Park Mansions, Knightsbridge, and d. 3 Mar 1993 from cancer, leaving £140,949.

"The sad loss of this splendidly professional airwoman, brilliant tutor, hugely energetic, ebullient, and lovable friend will be felt deeply by all who knew her." - The Independent

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Jean Mary Akerman
	b. 17 Dec 1922, Camberley	8 May 1944 to 3 Jun 1944

Father: Maj-General William Philip Jopp Akerman CB, DSO, MC, Director of Staff Duties Artillery, Army Headquarters India (Retired 1942, d. 1971); mother: Olga Phyllis [Steevens, d. 27 Dec 1922, i.e. when Jean was 10 days old]

Step-mother: Annie [Alexander] from 1925. Two step-sisters, Rosemary and Susan.

Ed. Bedgebury Park, Goudhurst, Kent

prev. WAAF (WMTS India)

Address in 1944: "Rotherwood", Churt, Farnham, Surrey

[ab initio pilot]

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

m. 25 Apr 1946 in Churt, Flt-Lt Dr David Stewart Crichton MBE, MB, ChB; one daughter Susan (Penny) [Buckley] 1948-2016

d. 13 Jun 2018 - Salisbury

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.163	3rd Officer	Susan Mary Aurea Alexander
	b. 19 or 20 Apr 1920, Horncastle Lincs	8 May 1944 to 30 Sep 1945

Father: Capt William James Alexander (a Company Director, Motor Trade, d. 1947), mother: Mary Jeanette [Rawnsley] (d. Jul 1941) of Raithby Hall, Spilsby:

  Raithby Hall, the home of the Rawnsley family

Ed. Benenden, Kent (School Certificate)

prev: WAAF

Address in 1944: c/o L S Dodds Ltd, Spilsby, Lincs

[Ab initio pilot]

Postings: 4FPP

One accident:

- 31 Jan 1945, in Swordfish II LS215; she failed to keep the aircraft straight on take-off, and it swung, hit a snow ridge and turned over

Gained her Royal Aero Club Pilot's Certificate (No 20753) as part of the ATA's 'Wings' scheme on 22 Nov 1945

d. 9 Jul 2000 - Taunton, Somerset

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.70	First Officer	Helen 'Naomi' Allen
	b. 25 Jun 1913, Folkestone	24 Feb 1942 to 31 Oct 1945

RAeC 1934

Also 1934

1935, with Cobham's Flying Circus

ATA

née Heron-Maxwell

mother: Lady Heron-Maxwell, of 5 Staverton Rd, Oxford

prev: Secretarial / Lecturing on Gliding and Parachuting 

Parachuting with Cobham's Flying Circus in 1935; she made over 100 descents.

See http://www.afleetingpeace.org for the story of Cobham's Air Circus

The first woman Silver Badge (Soaring) holder in the UK, and one of the founder members (with Lady Bailey, Joan Price, and Amy Johnson) of the Oxford Gliding Club

m. 2 Mar 1938, Francis Cecil Howard Allen (d. 28 Jan 1939 aged 34 in Austria, after an operation for a duodenal ulcer.)

[According to my mother-in-law, who knew the family, "Apparently it was quite a straightforward operation, he woke up, said 'Hello Darling' and then promptly had a heart attack and died", but Naomi wrote that it was 6 days after the operation.]

"Scar on left side of neck"

Address in 1942: 2 Dalmevey Ave, London SW16

 Postings: 6FPP, 15FPP, 1FPP, 4FPP

  with Jean Bird in a taxi Anson, 1942 [all photos with thanks to Nick Thomas]

Reprimanded in August 1944 for "Loss of Ferry Pilot's Notes", and in May 1945 for "taxying with insufficient care"

6 accidents, 4 her fault:

- 15 Oct 1942, "careless taxying" crosswind in Hawker Audax K5599; the aircraft tipped onto its nose

- 9 Jan 1943, she overshot a landing in Spitfire JG953

- 22 Mar 1943, she landed without lowering the undercarriage of her Mustang 1a FD443

- 17 Nov 1943, a forced landing in a Seafire III, after the port cannon fairing blew off in the air

- 18 Dec 1943, she overshot a landing in Spitfire IX BS401, after encountering very bad weather and turning back

- 15 May 1945, she failed to control her Warwick BV343 while taxying, and one wheel fell into "an excavation at the side of the track"

"A really keen pilot of average ability who wants hard work. Her temperament is unusual and her attitude towards criticism is inclined to be resentful"

"Her technical knowledge is below average" [she admitted this was true]

Moved to Los Angeles in 1948

m. 1957 Howard D Thomas (a Real Estate agent) (divorced); one son, b. 1958, Nick - who has written a wonderful biography about her, using her diaries, called "Naomi the Aviatrix"

 d. 1983 - Leisure World, Laguna Hills, CA

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.91	First Officer	Mrs Joan Mary Allen
	b. 4 Dec 1914, Shillong India	15 Jul 1942 to 30 Sep 1945

 née Stapledon

Father: Gerald Stapledon ("of Calcutta, fourth son of William Stapledon of Lakenham, Northam, N. Devon", d. 1944), mother Eleanor Maud [Halliday], ("eldest daughter of Lt-Col S C Halliday, late R.A.") of Upton, Hartley Wintney, Hants

Ed. Rosemead, Littlehampton

prev exp: 34 hrs 30min on DH Moth, Hornet Moth, Magister, Whitney Straight in Malaya ('A' Licence No 76 gained in the Straits Settlements)

Sailed from Calcutta to London aged 4, with her mother and younger sister Maud Winifred in 1919, to Singapore in September 1935 and back from Bombay to Plymouth in Apr 1936.

m. Flt-Lt John Anthony Allen (d. 16 May 1941 in Singapore, in a training accident). Their son Christopher John was born 13 Jun 1941, but died aged 10 months in Cape Town, en route from Singapore.

Two accidents, both her fault:

- 2 Apr 1943, taxying her Auster III MZ186 without sufficient care, the propeller struck a marker flag

- 22 May 1944, the tail wheel of her Beaufighter broke off after a heavy landing

 m. Lt-Cmdr Keith Marshall (a daughter, Geraldine Mary b. 1958, d. 1979)

d. 7 May 1994 - Yelverton, Devon

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.106	2nd Officer	Myrtle Rita 'Mikki' Allen
	b. 26 Nov 1916, Paterson NJ	12 Aug-42 to 11 Feb-44

Father: William A Allen, mother Jeanette

Ed; Hawthorne High School, American School in Tokyo, Columbia University, NYC

prev. Mechanical Dept, Curtiss Propeller

 One of the original members of the 99 Club of women aviators.

She and her mother had visited the UK, in 1930

 prev. exp. 325 hrs

 Address in 1942: 70 Warren Ave, Hawthorne, NJ

Postings: 15FPP

One accident:

- 12 Sep 1942; she overshot her landing in a Hart, applied the brakes too harshly and the aircraft turned over.

Off sick from 22 Sep to 5 Oct 1942 with bronchial catarrh, and 18 Nov 1942 to 7 Feb 1943 with 'post-operation debility'

m. 23 Aug 1945 in St Louis MO, Major Joseph Watkins Carter, US Army Signal Corps. They met in London and had been engaged since Christmas Day 1942.

They divorced sometime before 1953.

After ATA, Myrtle served with the WASPs.

  https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org

but went to stay with her husband in Italy from 5 Nov 1946 to 14 May 1947, and then spent two years in Japan, 1951-53

 m. 1953 in Paterson., NJ, Carl Henry Willer

Later a secretary with the US Treasury Dept; moved to Florida in 1965 from Washington DC.

d. 10 Jun 1966 - Tampa, FL (Age 49)

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.47	2nd Officer	Irene Arckless
	b. 28 Dec 1915, Uppingham	1 Aug-41 to Jan-43

RAeC 1937

MUWW

Prev. Exp: 53 hrs solo

Irene was one of those ordinary working-class girls who, by sheer enthusiasm and determination, and with the help of the subsidised Civil Air Guard Scheme, learnt to fly in the years before WWII. She managed to amass over 50 hours solo between 1937 and 1939. Amy Mollison (Amy Johnson as was, and she were only the daughter of a fish merchant in Hull) once snootily dismissed someone as "the typical CAG Lyons-waitress type".

You've probably met someone like Irene; bubbly, a bit cheeky, innocent, irreverent - 'high spirited', if you like that sort of thing, a complete pain if you don't - and probably exactly the sort of person who would get right up Captain The Hon. Margie 'Mrs Cold Front' Fairweather's nose. Which she indeed did - and of that, more later.

Anyway, in her first letter, dated 11 Mar 1941, having heard Lord Londonderry's appeal on the wireless the night before, she applied: "I wish to put forward the following for your approval, and I will be most grateful to hear from you if you think that my services could be of use in connection with the ATA... I was studying for my 2nd class navigators certificate and intending to take a 'B' licence but the war stopped all that I'm afraid.

I am 25 years of age, height about 5ft 4. I would very much like to get into the ATA, particularly as my fiancé is a prisoner of war in Germany (Flt Lt lockyer) and as he is no longer able to fly his beloved spitfires, if I can carry on his good work I would love to do so. I am swotting up all the information I can get hold of with regard to v.p. airscrews, superchargers and boost pressure, as we did not have any of those on our poor old gypsy moths, hornet moths etc!"

She closed by "Hoping I can do my bit for our dear old country."

 They invited her for a flight test, and on the 31st March she wrote:

"Dear Mr Wood
First of all I better give you an explanation of this letter! A few days ago I wrote to W/Cdr G. Tuttle asking if he could tell me anything about the prospects of the A.T.A. I had already submitted my application to them, and have since had a letter asking me to go to Hatfield for a flight test. I have arranged to attend at Hatfield on Tuesday, April 8th at 10-00.
I have had a letter from Geoffrey today, and he gave me your name and address, and told me to write to you, so I trust you will forgive the liberty I am taking.
What I want to know at the moment, and before I go to Hatfield next Monday - I am travelling down to London on the 7th instant, is - I might as well come straight to the point! - do you know what kind of machines they are using at Hatfield for the flight tests? I would be most grateful if you could drop me a note and let me know what to expect to handle - 'cause I want to be as well prepared as possible. I have handled Gipsy II, Hornet Moths, Fox Moth, and several of the ultra light types, such as Pragas, Taylor Cubs etc. I am hoping I don't have to do the test on a completely strange machine - if they have Tiger Moths there I shall be quite happy, as they are very similar to Gipsys as you know. If it will be in order for you to inform me what I will be most likely take the test on, I shall be most grateful to you."

He sent a telegram back which (even before the days of auto-correctign smartphones) managed to read "Tiger Mothers for initial test".

She was well into her stride now. Here she is, writing to ATA Adjutant Kitty Farrer on the 9 Apr 1941:
"Dear Madam,
First of all I would like to say how pleased I am that I was successful in passing my flight test yesterday, and that I am looking forward very much to coming down to take up duty. I already feel I shall be very happy with you all, as everyone was very nice to me yesterday. I do sincerely hope it will not be long before you send for me - you know I am honestly very anxious to get down to what I term 'a real job of work'.
There was one thing I forgot to ask you yesterday, a rather important one as well! The question of salary!!
I know the rates as published in 'Flight' but whether these apply to male and female, or only the former, I do not know, will you be kind enough to tell me exactly what the scale is?
From what you said yesterday, I gather I shall be at Hatfied 'under training' for about a month, & during this time I take it flying pay will not be applicable. I should like to know just how I shall be fixed as regards salary, so that I can make necessary arrangements here before I leave, i.e. (so that if necessary I will have sufficient cash to last me until I draw my first pay).
I am asking you this because I have recently transferred my Bank balance to War Bonds, & naturally do not want to have to 'cash in' on these if not necessary. I think you will quite understand my asking - I hope so anyway.Further, if there are any special subjects I can 'swot' meantime, will you send me a list? I am swotting up Met: Navigation, etc, and also my morse - I don't know whether the ATA ever have need to use the latter, but it may be useful at some time or other.

Believe me Mrs Farrer, this job of work I am going to do, & I shall do my utmost to do it well, means an awful lot to me, I told you my fiancé F/Lt Lockyer is a prisoner of War, & to me now, every 'plane we can deliver to the Great Lads of the RAF, means one day nearer to the time he will be home, & everyone carefree & happy again. You don't know Tommy, but he is a grand fellow, & a damn good pilot, he has over 3,000 to his credit! My record is a mere detail beside that isn't it?
To me, however, his 3,000 hours means an awful lot, & whenever I fly, I always try my best to do it well, I've his good reputation to uphold you see. You'll probably think that a very sentimental reason, on the other hand, maybe you'll understand what I mean.
By the way, I think I could get off with a fortnight's notice, so if perchance if I could start with you in May, will you let me know. Here's hoping I can start then.

Forgive me for taking up so much of your time with this letter please, I started it with the intention of being very business like! but I'm afraid it's got to be a personal letter in the end - hasn't it?

Hoping to be with you all very soon.

Irene"

She wrote back to Mr Wood to say thank you, and that "I passed the flight test successfully - in fact, I did very well indeed, so I was told by the Adjutant afterwards - she said "Your test was excellent". So you may guess I felt quite proud of myself!
Actually I surprised myself I must admit, because after being 'off' flying since the outbreak of war, I thought maybe I'd have forgotten a few things - however I hadn't, thank goodness! because this job means rather a lot to me as I told you."

Nothing happened...

20th April 1941, to Kitty:

"Dear Mrs Farrer,
Many thanks for your letter of the 14th instant. You know you make me feel very much at 'home' the way you write, and I know that I will be very happy with you all when I come to join you.
I think I told you I am at an E.F.T.S. at the moment, and British Air Transport, who are running the School, have a scheme for training boys to become engine experts! (we hope!) so after office hours, I am an apprentice! I am trying to put together all the numerous parts which go to make up an aircraft engine!!
I suppose I will be reaching the 'watchmaker' stage before too long - you know - one piece over! Where the heck does this go?!! I have learned quite a lot about 'twin' types, and already, in theory! I think I could fly 'em!! That remains to be seen, but I hope one day soon I shall be flying twin, or even more than twin types.
Optimistic aren't I! Strange to say though, right from childhood I've always felt more at home 'upstairs' than on the ground.
Here's hoping you will soon require some more pilots Mrs Farrer, I'm an awful pest aren't I? but I'm just longing to get started you know."

Nothing continued to happen...

5th June to Kitty:

"Dear Mrs Farrer,
Yes, it's that Arckless pest again! I am going to ask you something point blank, and leave it to you to decide what happens!
As so far there seems no possibility of me coming down to join you in the immediate future on the flying staff, I wonder if in the meantime there is any chance of a Ground appointment, either as a typist or clerical staff.
If there is any opportunity of work of this nature in the meantime, I would be perfectly willing to come down, and then later, when a vacancy exists for a pilot, I could be transferred to that vacancy.
I feel sure that I could make myself quite useful if there are any openings in this direction, but of course, as you will understand, I naturally want to start on flying duties as soon as possible.
I am sure you will think I am an awful nuisance, but as you have been so kind, I hope you will forgive me troubling you again. To be perfectly honest Mrs Farrer, this is between you and I entirely -  I am sitting in the office here doing practically nothing all day and I don't like it!
You see, as Mr Brown, our Accountant, knows I am leaving to come to A.T.A. sometime, he has taken on someone else who is taking over my job, and the point is, that I am left without anything to do, except to watch that my job is done correctly by someone else!
Well, there you are, thats the position, and if you are able to help me, I shall be most grateful to you.
Thanking you in anticipation of your reply, Very Sincerely, Irene"

Nothing still continued to happen; eventually Irene took herself off to another job, so she must have been amazed to finally get the call to report on 1 August 1941.

She completed training (although she bumped into another aircraft when landing on the 11th August, due to 'bad airmanship'), went on to ferry work, and progressed through the ranks; she was promoted to Third Officer on 5 Feb 1942, then Second Officer on 1 Jul 1942.

On the 24 Feb 1942, ATA Senior Commander Pauline Gower invited Irene into her office to discuss a rather delicate matter. Irene was typically... forthright:

"Interview with 3rd Officer Irene Arckless
To Pauline Gower Dear Madam,
Further to interview of this morning, I would like to place the following statement on record as I feel it would be more satisfactory from my own personal view point. The matter being to me of a very serious nature, and effecting my good character, as such it has always been to date.

Reference the accusation made, and presumed to concern myself i.e. that at a certain aerodrome (unnamed) an unnamed duty pilot is reported to have said to me - when I requested the delivery chit to be signed - "I will, if you give me a kiss first".

I wish to emphatically deny these words, as never, on any occasion, has such a familiar attitude been adopted by any duty pilot wherever I have been.
Further, I would like to place on record that far from adopting a familiar attitude myself - I get my chits signed as soon as possible, and depart from the duty pilot's office.
Having served six months in H.M. Forces prior to joining A.T.A. I consider, that as an Officer and I trust, a lady, I know how to conduct myself both in and out of uniform.... "

Irene demanded a full and detailed enquiry, and went on,

"I would like to add that recently at a number of aerodromes visited, & by a number of people, I have been mistaken for another female member of the ATA, whether there proves to be any connection with the charge made & the above - will do doubt, after investigation, come to light.
I an Madam, Your Obedient Servant, Irene

Pauline (no doubt muttering under her breath 'For goodness' sake, calm down, woman'), replied:
"With reference to your letter to me of today's date, I would point out to you that you have not been charged with any offence. Certain matters have been brought to my attention and I took the course of discussing these with you in order to clear them up.
Under the circumstances I shall make a further investigation but in the meantime I am fully prepared to take your word concerning the particular instance mentioned in our conversation this morning."

... and that appears to have been the end of that.

The very next month (March 1942), however, a more serious matter came up, and she was grounded. Without boring you with all the tedious details of 'She said to me, so I said to her', etc, what happened was this:

On the 15th March, Irene ferried an aircraft from Catterick to Prestwick, via Carlisle. As she landed, who should be watching but Margie Fairweather, and she was not pleased by what she saw; "I noted the circuit and approach of the machine which ultimately turned out to be piloted by 3rd Officer Arckless. The final turn into the slight wind which was blowing, was done in a series of jerks, in the nature of flat turns, and the machine was then under-shooting by several hundred yards. The engine was now used to recover, and height was again gained. Thereafter the machine made a perfectly good landing on the grass. I was shocked to discover the pilot was 3rd Officer Arckless who is known to have some experience."

Margie confronted Irene, criticised her turns, the height at which she circuited the aerodrome, minutely cross-examined her on her knowledge of the valley, and queried Irene's explanation of a fuel leak for the large quantity of petrol taken on at Carlisle; (she asked for a 'Snag Report' and said "If it's found to be alright, it will be too bad for you", or words to that effect"); she also told Irene she clearly didn't know how to work an altimeter. Margie summed up her opinion of Irene in no uncertain terms: "Her whole bearing during our conversation convinced me, that her extreme confidence in herself as a pilot has no justification."

Irene, in turn, wrote, "Personally I feel that there is some personal prejudice existing in the whole of Captain Fairweather's attitude" and ended her report by stating, "my one ambition is to be an asset to A.T.A. and not a menace!"

As it happens, Irene came up with convincing arguments against all Margie's criticisms; nevertheless, she was sent back to School for a Check Flight, with the Chief Instructor, no less. I wonder if she could resist a slight smirk when the report came back:

19 Mar 1942
T/O I. Arckless
We have duly received your report dated 15 March regarding the above Officer, and thank you for writing.
Miss Arckless has had a flight check with the Chief Flying Instructor who has given us such a good report that we have no alternative but to return her to full flying duties.
Her explanations on your various points seem fairly satisfactory, but we shall, of course, keep this Officer under observation.

To be fair to Margie, she was just doing her job, and she was absolutely right to be concerned; the 15th of March 1942 was one of the worst days of ATA's existence, with 6 people dead in 4 separate crashes. Plus, Margie was a very experienced pilot and instructor; if she had concerns about the way Irene was flying, she was aprobably right. But in any case Margie and Irene's personalities and backgrounds were so different, they were perhaps bound to clash.

Pauline thought it best to transfer Irene anyway, with this note in her file:

"Miss Arckless suffers from over confidence and I am not at all satisfied with her ability as a Class I pilot. I should be grateful therefore if you would keep a careful check on her flying and general airmanship."

Irene's next mishap turned out entirely to her credit; on the 20 Aug 1942 she took off in a Mk I Hurricane, and the port undercarriage leg failed to retract. She wrote "I flew around for about 30 minutes trying to get port leg up, or starboard down, by the emergency methods... nothing happened, in any of these directions, the port leg remained down and starboard up.

After this I circuited the aerodrome, wiggled my wings, and made very amazing other actions. By amazing actions I mean: I trimmed aircraft to fly hands off as well as was possible under the circumstances, took both hands off and feet off everything and tried brute force to move the selector lever... during this period the aircraft certainly appeared to perform some remarkable antics!

I then did a further circuit and went in to land. Port wheel fortunately retracted and I made a normal crash landing."

She went back to School, but this time on a conversion course. Her final report was, again, positive:

"from A G Head, Temp. O.C. Training Pool
"a keen and safe pilot who has shown considerable initiative and resourcefulness. A likeable personality who is inclined to be rather high spirited but whose work is of a high standard. An extremely good navigator who will make a most useful ferry pilot.She had to cope with a difficult problem in a Hurricane with undercarriage selector trouble recently, and belly landed it with less damage than the Engineer Officer of the Station had ever seen before with similar circumstances. She was exonerated by the Accidents Committee, thus proving her School reports to carry considerable weight.All her work in Training Pool has been very satisfactory."

She had another accident, on 21 Dec 42; her Airspeed Oxford developed low oil pressure in its starboard engine and she had to force land. The incident was investigated and she was found 'not to blame'.

Sadly however, her next accident - less than 3 weeks later, in the same type of aircraft - was fatal. On the afternoon of Sunday 3 Jan 1943, her Oxford V3888 crashed onto a house on the outskirts of Cambridge when an engine cut during take-off. She was taken to Addenbrooks but pronounced dead.

I don't think Pauline Gower ever warmed to her, actually; rather than the usual fairly positive summary, she managed to damn Irene with faint praise: "her conduct and general character was satisfactory and she performed her duties conscienciously"

Buried Stanwix Cemetery, Carlisle. ATA pilot Ronald Porter (q.v.) is buried in the adjacent plot.

The Inscription reads:

"UNTIL THE DAY BREAK

Treasured Memories of 

IRENE ARCKLESS

Second Officer ATA Ferry Pilot who was accidentally killed

at Cambridge while on Service 3 Jan 1943 Aged 27 Years

Beloved Daughter of William and Fanny Arckless

Also William Arckless Dearly Loved Husband of Fanny

Who Died 18 Dec 1965, Aged 74 Years

Also Fanny, Beloved Wife of William

Who Died 11 April 1987, Aged 92 Years"

 The ATA Benevolent Fund went to visit her parents, to offer assistance, but reported back:

"Mr Arckless is an ordinary working man, being an organ-builder by trade and I understand that in recent years he has not been fully employed, hence the reason that I deemed it advisable to interview the deceased's parents on the question of the Fund.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Arckless have requested me to thank the Organisation and the Committee for the consideration shown to them, but they feel that, although their daughter contributed considerably to the home, they cannot under the circumstances avail themselves of any monetary allowance which the Committee may have sen fit to grant them as they feel there must be many more deserving cases, namely young widows left with small children."

Cairns Post, 15 Jan 1943; "Irene Arckless, daughter of a Carlisle organ-builder, was known as "the flying school-girl." She realised her school-girl ambition to emulate Amy Johnson. She made her first solo flight when she was 21. She was killed on the day after her 28th birthday [sic]. She had just returned to her station from four days leave. She was engaged to Flight-Lieutenant Thomas Lockyer, a prisoner of war in Germany.

Lockyer's father said last night "Tom and Irene had known each other since childhood. She took flying lessons as soon as she left school. When Tom joined the RAF, she was determined to get her 'wings as soon as he.”

She joined the RAF ferry service in October, 1941 [sic], after she heard that Lockyer was a prisoner. 'One of us must keep flying, she said'.”

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip files):

W.166	3rd Officer	Joan Henrietta Arthur
	b. 5 Aug 1919, Ealing	8 May-44 to Sep-45

Father: George Arthur, a Civil Servant; mother Margaret, a nurse

prev. an insurance clerk

Address in 1945: 51 Hillfield Rd, W Hampstead, London NW6

 [Ab initio pilot]

Gained her Royal Aero Club Pilot's Certificate (No 20488) as part of the ATA's 'Wings' scheme on 3 Aug 1945

m. 1948 in Hampstead, Eric G Barton

 d. 5 Mar 1993 - Hatch End, Middx

 photo: 1927, aged 37

Born in London but brought up mainly in County Monaghan, Ireland.

Her family's home was Rossmore Castle, which was a grand affair built in the 1820s, with turrets, a vast drawing room and servants' quarters, not to mention about 20 cottages on the estate:

 www.monaghan.ie/museum

Here she is, with her brother Willie, and parents (Mittie and Derry) on a set of steps by the house, in 1913:

 Throttle Full Open

I visited County Monaghan in 2014 and asked in the local museum if they knew where the house was. 'Oh yes' they said, 'but it was demolished forty years ago'. It seems that it became severely infested with dry rot in the 1940s, was abandoned and, indeed, demolished in 1975.

Anyway, here's all that's left of it now:

Mary married South African mining magnate and white suprematist politician Sir Abe Bailey in September 1911 (so, she was 21, he was nearly 47; his first wife had died in 1902 and he already had two children). They then had five more children - 2 boys and 3 girls.

She learnt to fly at the London Aeroplane Club in 1926. She was the first woman to fly across the Irish Sea 'by the long route' from Chester to Dublin, the following August.

The following March (1928) she began a solo tour to Cape Town, via Malta and then Cairo. Here, her plane was locked away by order of the Governor-General of the Sudan to prevent her from continuing alone, so she contacted Dick Bentley (who had flown to the Cape a few weeks before) to escort her in his own aeroplane over the "dangerous area of the southern Sudan". She then crashed in Tanganyika, writing off her aeroplane (she said it was her fault), but Abe made arrangements for a replacement Moth to be delivered from Pretoria and she continued, despite having 'flu. Abe was there to meet her when she arrived at the end of April. 

The return journey was made via the western 'French' route - the Belgian Congo, Angola and the French Congo. She finally arrived back at Croydon on 16 January, 1929, 10 months after she left. It was "undoubtedly one of the finest performances ever put up by a woman pilot." 

Lady Bailey was "so modest, so vague and so charming", and was "surprised that anyone should make a fuss about her journey". 

A Director of National Flying Services in 1929, (with Frederick Guest, Colonel the Master of Sempill, Alan Cobham, etc); she was also awarded the Brittania Trophy by the Royal Aero Club, and then made a Dame of the British Empire in 1930 for "services to aviation".

 At the Chateau d'Ardennes in 1930

She was a guest at Amelia Earhart's reception at the RAeC in May 1932 - photo here.

In early 1933 she gave everyone a scare by disappearing for several days on another solo flight to Cape Town; thankfully, she had only got lost, run low on fuel and landed safely in the Sahara. [Bert Hinkler, who disappeared at about the same time, was killed in the Alps]. She then flew back to England and almost immediately went down with a bout of typhoid, but recovered in time to compete in the King's Cup later in the year.

After that, she concentrated on looking after their horses, giving and attending loads more balls and receptions, and marrying off their many children.

When Abe died in 1940, she settled near Cape Town (still keeping a house in Rutland) and died there 29th August 1960 aged 69.

King's Cup in 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933

Lady Mary's aeroplanes were:

a 1926 DH.60 Moth (G-EBPU),

a 1927 DH.60X Moth (G-EBSF, the one she crashed in Tanganyika),

the replacement DH.60X Moth (G-EBTG, which Abe bought in Nairobi);

a 1928 DH.60G Gipsy Moth (G-AABN);

a 1929 DH.60G Gipsy Moth (G-AAEE) and

a 1930 DH.80A Puss Moth, G-AAYA. 

W.146	3rd Officer	Rita Pauline Baines
	b. 13 Nov 1921, Stoke-on-Trent	28 Dec-43 to 30 Sep-45

Ed. Felixstowe College

prev: Rootes Securities Ltd, (a 'shadow' aircraft factory at Blythe Bridge, near Stoke-on-Trent); MAP from Nov 1942

Ab initio pilot cadet

Postings: 15FPP

Later 'Star Girl No. 2', air hostess for British South American Airlines: (see also Mary Guthrie , who was 'Star Girl No. 1)

m. 1946 Captain David Colby, an ex-Pathfinder Squadron Leader

 The Tatler

"SEQUEL TO AIR ROMANCE

There was a sequel to an air romance at Trentham Parish Church on Saturday when a former transocean passenger air-liner hostess was married to a pilot in the employ of the British and South American Airways. The bride was Miss Rita P. Baines, the 25-years-old daughter of Mr. C J. Baines, head of Messrs C. J. Baines and Co. Ltd . colour manufacturers, of Stoke, and of Mrs, Baines. The Woodlands. Trentham. and the bridegroom. Mr. David Colby, the 26-years-old son of Mrs Colby. Oulton Broads. Norfolk, a former R.A F. squadron-leader and the holder oi the D.F.C.

The couple met last January when Miss Baines travelled as air-hostess and made a call at the Gambia (British West Africa) station of the airways company. of which Mr. Colby was station manager." Staffordshire Advertiser - Saturday 30 November 1946

[David d. 30 January 1948 (age 27) in the crash of British and South American Airlines' Avro Tudor IV G-AHNP 'Star Tiger', lost on a flight between the Azores and Bermuda. 6 crew and 25 passengers died.]

m. 1949 Christopher Johnson, MD of Johnson Bros Ceramics

"The marriage took place at the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great. West Smithfield. London, on Monday, of Mr. Christopher Johnson. younger son of Mr and Mrs Frank Johnson. Kniveden Hall. Leek, and Mrs Rita Colby, daughter of and Mrs. C. J Baines. Woodlands. Trentham. and widow of Squadron-Leader David Colby. D.F.C. After the reception at the Dorchester Hotel. Mr and Mrs. Johnson left for their honeymoon, which is being spent in Italy." Staffordshire Advertiser - Saturday 20 August 1949

d. 2007 - Newcastle Staffs

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.119	3rd Officer	Mrs Eirene Rosemary Banister
	b. 20 Jul 1919, Budleigh Salterton, Devon	12 Jul 1943 to 30 Sep 1945

RAeC 1939

1940 (The Bystander)

 née Whittow

Father Richard Whittow (a Merchant and farmer), mother Eirene Frances Stewart [Tweedie] (m. 1910 in Colombo, Ceylon)

Address in 1939: Muryn, Brockenhurst, Hants

Sailed to the UK from Port Said with her parents in December 1938, then to the USA in June 1939

Civil Air Guard in 1939

prev. exp. 3 hrs on Gypsy Moth

m. 31 Mar 1940 in Brockenhurst, Lt. Peter Charles McConnel Banister RN,  DSC (d. 19 Jul 1941 in HM submarine 'Umpire' which collided with a trawler off the Norfolk coast on its maiden voyage) (1 child, Carol b. 1941)

 Postings:  5TFPP, 12FPP (Sec), 15FPP

 Class III pilot

 m. Sep 1947 in Hants, Hugh Digorie Seccombe (2 children: Celia b. 1948, Geoffrey b. 1949)

Moved to Guildford, Surrey and died there 1 Jun 2011

 IWM interview (from 1989) here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009672

W.59	First Officer	Diana Barnato MBE FRAeS
	b. 15 Jan 1918, Camden Town, London	2 Dec-41 to Aug-45

Father: Capt. Joel Woolf 'Babe' Barnato (a financier, chairman of Bentley Motors and a racing driver), mother: Dorothy Maitland [Falk, divorced 1935]

Ed. Queen's College, London

prev. VAD nurse and with the Red Cross

prev. exp. 10 hrs

Address in 1941: Ridgemead, Englefield Green, Surrrey

Postings: 15FPP

Severely Reprimanded in May 1943 for "appearing at Windsor Races wearing trousers and side cap", and Reprimanded in Jun 1943, and demoted to 3rd Officer for 'divertion of operational aircraft"

m. 6 May 1944 in Englefield Green, Wing-Cmdr Derrick 'Derek' Ronald Walker DFC (d. 14 Nov 1945 in a flying accident)

Post-WWII, having gained her commercial licence she became a pilot for the Women's Junior Air Corps, giving air cadets air experience and training flights at weekends.

In 1956, Veronica Volkersz wrote that Diana was one of only 7 women flying commercially: -  "Diana Barnato-Walker flies regularly for the Women's Junior Air Corps"  - and concluded that "The tragedy is that for women, commercial aviation is now - except, possibly, in Russia - a closed field."

[The others were Jackie Moggridge, Monique Rendall, Jean Bird, Suzanne Ashton, Zita Irwin and Freydis Leaf]

She was awarded the Jean Lennox Bird Trophy in 1963:

 Receiving the Jean Lennox Bird Trophy from Lord Brabazon, 1963 [RAeC]

On 26 Aug 1963 she became the first British woman to exceed the speed of sound, and the fastest woman in the world when she attained Mach 1.65 (1262 mph) in an E.E. Lightning T.4.

Wrote "Spreading My Wings" (1994)

d. 28 Apr 2008

"In later years Diana Barnato Walker took up sheep farming and was master of the Old Surrey and Burstow foxhounds for thirteen seasons, while continuing to fly for the Women's Junior Air Corps (renamed in 1964 the Girls' Venture Corps). She also became commodore of the Air Transport Auxiliary Association. She died of pneumonia on 28 April 2008 in a hospital near her sheep farm in Surrey, and was survived by her son, Barney."

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.138	3rd Officer	Edith 'Ditty' Beaumont
+  ->	b. 24 Aug 1917, Berne, Switzerland	20 Sep-43 to Sep-45

via Michael Mackenzie

RAeC 1945

Mother (Emily) and father both German.

After Edith was born in Switzerland, she and her mother Emily moved back to Bavaria, then Emily married, in 1920, RAF Flying Officer (Later Air Commodore) Frank Beaumont (prev. RFC, PoW in WWI, 1935-38 Air Attaché, Prague, 1942-45 Director of Allied Air Co-operation and Foreign Liaison, 1945- Air Attaché, Belgrade)

Ed. Heathfield School, Ascot

British Nationality 1936

 prev. private secretary to the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia

with June Cole in 1945 (with thanks to Michael Mackenzie)

Gave up flying in about 1947, after a leg problem.

m. 1948 Dr. Charles Petri (divorced)

m. 1953 James Young Mackenzie (2 sons)

d. 1 Dec 1991

Her son Michael kindly tells me that "Our mother told my brother that there was a fellow pilot in whom she was interested and on good terms with. One day, she went into the Mess and, while talking to somebody else, saw this man across the room and said, “Ah there is XXXX. I must go and say hello”, whereupon the person to whom she was talking said words to the effect of “But do you not know? He died in a crash.”

"Our mother was not given to drama, indeed quite the contrary." 

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Betty Bell
	b. 23 Sep 1919, Holborn, London	1 Apr 1942 to 2 May 1942

Father: Robert Norton Bell, 55 St Albans Park, Sidney Parade, Dublin, mother: Marie [Stemple or Stempel, d. 1939]

Ed. Westcliff High School, Essex

 [Contract Terminated by ATA - "Unlikely to become an efficient ferry pilot"]

m. 1942 in Dublin, Matthew David Buchalter(?)

d. 7 Oct 1978 (?)

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Dorothy Ritson Bell
	b. 27 May 1920, Carlisle	8 May 1944 to 25 May 1944

 Father: Alfred Redmayne Bell (an agriculturalist, d. 1925 in Nigeria), mother: Ruth Dorothy [Ritson]

prev: Private secretary; WAAF

Next of Kin: (uncle) Alan Brewis Bell

Address in 1944: Cardrona, Wise Lane, Mill Hill London NW7

Contract Terminated by ATA - unlikely to become an efficient ferry pilot

 m. 1945 in Paddington, John T Tierney (?)

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.45	First Officer	Margaret Ellen 'Faith' Bennett
	b. 12 May 1903, London	8 Jul 1941 to 31 Jul 1945

née Margaret Ellen Riddick

Father: Harry Riddick, mother Mabel

Ed. Selhurst High School, Croydon, Surrey

Her elder brother, Private Stanley Charles Riddick, d. 15 Nov 1916, aged 19, in France during WWI.

 She married Hollywood film writer Charles Alfred Selwyn Bennett in 1930, and calling herself 'Faith Bennett', was an actress pre-WWII -  firstly on the London stage:

"Faith Bennett, who will play lead in 'Recipe for Murder', a new play by Arnold Ridley, which opens at the Duke of York's Theatre on December 21" (1932)

... and then in many films, including 'Eyes of Fate', 'Hawleys of High Street' and 'The Pride of the Force' (1933), and 'Seeing Is Believing', and 'Master and Man' (both 1934)), although I've seen references to other films e.g. 'Love In The Air' and 'Atlantic Crossing'...

  "In taste, quality and packing the equal of much dearer cigarettes but not quite so large; big enough, however, to last the full 10 minutes" (1937)

 ... and also played the Fairy Godmother in 'Cinderella', the Drury Lane pantomime, in !934

At the same time, she took up flying and passed for her 'A' Licence at Sywell Aerodrome in 1934 (which apparently included wearing 'weird and wonderful costumes' at the Novelty Dance held there in February:

 [Charles also took lessons, but doesn't seem to have gained his certificate]

In May 1941 she decided to 'do her bit': "Faith Bennett, actress and writer, is flying to England to ferry 'planes for the Royal Air Force [sic]. Mrs Bennett was born in London 30 years ago [sic]. Flying is her hobby. She holds both American and British licenses. ''One of my brothers died in the last war, another is in the Royal Navy, my sister is a censor at Bermuda - they are all doing their bit, and I want to do mine,' she said."

prev. exp. 296 hrs

Address in 1941: Falcon House, Sonning, Berks

Postings: 1FPP, 5TFPP, 15FPP

 Off sick from 9 Dec 1941 to 6 Jan 1942 after her Hurricane crash, and 27 Oct 1943 to 13 Jan 1944 with 'concussion'

Rather unfortunate: 11 accidents, 3 her fault:

- 8 Dec 1941, she persisted too far in bad weather, stalled her Hurricane BD859 near the ground and broke the undercarriage

           [see https://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york41/bd859.html]

- 16 Feb 1943, the port leg of her Tomahawk AH802 broke off during landing

- 24 Feb 1943, in another Tomahawk AH845, the port undercarriage leg collapsed

- 16 Sep 1943, forced landing in a Hurricane after the landing gear locked up

- 10 Aug 1943, in Master I T8366, which veered off the runway and collided with a car, due to ineffective brakes

- 1 Oct 1943, her Hudson swung off the runway on landing, because the tail wheel lock had disengaged

- 20 Oct 1943, a taxying accident in an Anson, due to an error of judgement on her part

- 23 Jan 1944, her Mosquito suffered a 'strained' port undercarriage leg on landing - faulty indicator light

- 25 Apr 1944, forced landing in Seafire MB356, after the landing gear locked up

- 30 May 1944, the port undercarriage leg of her Barracuda II BV921 collapsed on landing

- 29 Jun 1945, she failed to control the swing when landing Mosquito XXV KB617

"Extremely keen and hardworking. Seems to have regained confidence" "Her navigation is somewhat unorthodox. Technical knowlege poor"

Class IV pilot

m. 1946 Herbert Henry Newmark, also an ex-ATA pilot:

d. 14 Mar 1969 - London.

 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Bennett

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

Father: Capt. Philip Dennis Bennett (5th Bn, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, an architect, m. 17 Aug 1915, d. 24 Feb 1919 from influenza)

Philippa was born 9 months after her father died.

Mother: Doris Mary [Lowe, m. 1922 Ian Forbes Panton, he d. 1935]

Philippa's elder brother Dennis Labron Bennett was b. 20 Nov 1917, BA (Cantab), d. 25 Oct 1942 at El Alamein

Ed. Westonbirt School, Glos

Address in 1937: Ash Cottage, Harlington, Hayes, Middx

She was engaged to Francis Richard Bevan, RASC (previously a 'Mountie' with the RCMP) in May 1940.

 Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP

Class 5 (4-engine) pilot

7 accidents, 3 her fault:

- 7 Sep 1941, in Hurricane W9124 at Hatfield, she collided with a Tiger Moth due to 'gross carelessness'

- 20 Oct 1941, she failed to control the landing swing of Tomahawk AH808, and ground-looped (at Colerne)

- 18 Nov 1941, a forced landing in Anson R3340 after port engine failure

- 20 May 1942, she taxied Anson AX537 into a narrow parking space, ignoring the signal made by a member of the ground crew, and the tail hit a starter trolley

- 9 Sep 1943, a forced landing in Halifax II BB135, after a battery exploded

- 28 Oct 1944, another forced landing, this time in Walrus I W3008 after she lost all brake pressure

- 8 Jun 1945, a fourth forced landing, in Barracuda II DR202 when she noticed the batteries were overheating (due to incorrect voltage adjustment).

Commended for "valuable service in the air", 14 Jun 1945

   RAeC

26 March 1946: "26-year-old Miss Philippa Bennett has been flying planes ever since she was 17. For 5 and a half years she flew with the Air Transport Auxiliary service, when she piloted all types of planes from 4-engined bombers to Spitfires. She got her B Licence in 1938. Now she is proposing to make a business out of what was her hobby and her war work; she has bought two high wing monoplanes with which she is starting her own air taxi service at Southampton Airport. She hopes to specialise in aerial photographic work.

Photo Shows: Miss Phillippa Bennett in her taxi monoplane at Southampton Airport"

 The three aircraft Philippa eventually owned included the Foster Wikner Wicko GM1s G-AFJB and G-AGPE (the latter used for spares)

  http://www.wicko.com/wickohistory.htm

"When Geoffrey Wickner purchased a surplus Halifax bomber with the intention of returning to Australia he sold the Wicko to Philippa Bennett who used the aircraft in her air taxi service again out of Eastleigh. During that time the machine was extensively damaged in a forced landing, caused by bad weather when it ran over the edge of a cliff, fortunately without injury to the occupants. After repair the aircraft was sold but again was registered to Philippa and Lettice Curtis who raced the aircraft at a number of events under the race number 39. The handicappers were unkind to the Wicko and her pilot and the aircraft was not too well placed at any event. "

"Although exciting and fulfilling, it was not a financially viable enterprise"

m. Jul 1947 in Winchester, Wing Commander Maurice Booth DFC (3 sons)

"She later settled in the village of Durrington in Wiltshire where she owned and ran the village shop" - The Telegraph

d. 24 May 2007 - Salisbury

W.93	First Officer	Mrs Patricia Gladys Beverley
	b. 22 Aug 1910, Egham Surrey	29 Jul 1942 to 31 Oct 1945

 nee Seemann

Father: Norman Charles Seemann, mother Beatrice Maud [Grey, d. 1926]

m. 1931 in Barnet, Robert Lewis Beverley, (original surname Baker, based in S. Rhodesia in 1942)

Her brother, Norman Walter Keith Seeman, was killed age 25 in a car accident in 1934. Patricia was injured in the same accident and was "carried into court", which decided that former racing driver William Berkeley Scott was responsible for the accident due to "careless, reckless and dangerous driving."

 Address in 1942: Stone House Hotel, Hatfield

Joined ATA originally as an MT Driver

Postings: 1FPP, 5FPP

Class 3 Pilot

Reprimanded and fined 3 days salary in Feb 1943 for 'Neglect of Duty'

4 accidents, 2 her fault:

- 1 May 1943, a forced landing in a Hurricane after a hydraulic failure

- 20 Jul 1943, while taxying 'without sufficient care', her Spitfire Vb hit a stationary Beaufighter [Severely reprimanded]

- 29 Nov 1943, she landed her Proctor LZ651 crosswind on wet grass, disobeying airfield 'runways only' signals, skidded and hit an obstruction [Severely reprimanded and suspended without pay for three days]

- 13 Apr 1945, a wheels-up forced landing in Mustang IV KM217 after the selector lever jammed

d. 27 Feb 1948 in Miles M.65 Gemini 1a G-AJZI owned by St. Christopher Travel-Ways Ltd, which crashed at Ridge Park, Wallington shortly after take-off from Croydon airport.

She was acting as co-pilot to Wing-Cmdr William Herbert Whetton; he and the 2 passengers were injured in the crash.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.46	First Officer	Jean Lennox Bird
	b. 8 Jul 1912, Hong Kong	1 Aug 1941 to 30 Nov 1945

Father: Col. L G Bird DSO, OBE, of The Old Farm, Beech, nr Alton, Hants

Ed. Manor House, Limpsfield

WAAF ASO from 16 May 1940 to 31 Jul 1941

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP, 4FPP, 6FPP

Class 4+ pilot

6 accidents, 3 her fault:

- 15 May 1942, her Spitfire BR236 ran into an umarked soft patch when landing, and nosed over

- 26 Jun 1942, she stalled Albacore L2174 attempting a forced landing, after the windscreen became obscured with oil

- 18 Nov 1943, after taking off in Anson R9757, she bent down to retrieve a Form 700, inadvertently pushed forward the control column, and wrecked the undercarriage in the subsequent crash.

- 15 Mar 1944, a spectacular-sounding crash in Hudson III T9426; on take-off, due to insufficient speed the port wing dropped and hit the ground, and the aircraft cartwheeled. However, she was held 'not to blame'.

- 17 Jul 1944, she was unable to correct the take-off swing of her Spitfire IX PL162, ran off the runway, ground-looped to avoid some workmen, and nosed over

- 16 Apr 1945, a jeep ran into her Mosquito VI HR136 while she was taxying, and damaged the starboard undercarriage

"An extremely sensible, keen and good pilot on whom one can rely... must guard against giving a wrong impression by her difficult manner" - Margot Gore, her C.O.

Awarded her RAF 'Wings' in Sep 1952, the first of 5 women (all ex-ATA pilots) to do so when serving with the short-lived (1 Feb 1949 - 1954) Women's Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (WRAFVR). The others were Benedetta Willis, Jackie Moggridge, Freydis Leaf and Joan Hughes 

In 1956, Veronica Volkersz wrote that Jean was one of only 7 women flying commercially: -  "Jean Bird flies a Miles Aerovan on aerial survey"  - and concluded that "The tragedy is that for women, commercial aviation is now - except, possibly, in Russia - a closed field."

[The others were Jackie Moggridge, Monique Rendall, Suzanne Ashton, Zita Irwin, Diana Barnato-Walker and Freydis Leaf]

d.  29 Apr 1957 in the crash of Miles Aerovan 4 G-ASIF belonging to Meridian Air Maps. "... evidence was given that the aircraft had been fitted with an incorrect spare part"

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/28632

 Full biography here: Jean Bird - Wikipedia

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip files):

W.80	First Officer	Betty Ellice Black
	b. 1 Sep 1913, Dunedin NZ	15 Apr-42 to 30 Aug-45

NZ Herald 1943

ATAM

 Father: George Black (NZ Superintendent of Dalgety & Co, d. 1937)

Ed. St Hilda's Collegiate School, Dunedin

prev. exp: 129 hrs 50min, on DH 60, DH82, DH94, Miles Hawk, Magister, Whitney Straight, BA Swallow, Percival Vega Gull, Avro Avian in New Zealand and Australia

Next of Kin: (Aunt) Mrs Owen Gould, Hampton, Otago NZ

prev. Equipment Assistant, RNZAF, 21 Apr to 24 Nov 1941

Address in 1942: c/o New Zealand House, 415 The Strand, London

She arrived in the UK from Aukland on the 19 Feb 1942, quoting her address as c/o Dalgety & Co., Leadenhalll St, London

Postings: 1FPP, 15FPP, 12FPP, 6FPP

7 accidents, only 1 her fault:

- 19 Jun 1942, in a Hart; her approach was too slow and she made a heavy landing, damaging the engine mountings;

- 2 Mar 1943, she landed her Hurricane and hit an unmarked dip, causing the undercarriage leg to collapse;

- 18 Sep 1943, the cockpit cover of her Spitfire broke away during flight;

- 11 Mar 1944, another landing accident, this time in a Typhoon when the tail wheel retracted due to a hydraulic fault;

- 27 Sep 1944, when the starboard undercarriage collapsed in an Argus; this time a sunken drainage gulley was to blame, and

- 12 Feb 1945, her fourth undercarrriage landing-run collapse, this time the port wheel of a Beaufighter, and

- 11 Apr 1945, a precautionary frced landing in a Beaufighter when the port engine lost revs.

"A cheerful, hardworking pilot" "A good ferry pilot; always ready for any job allotted to her".

m. Feb 1946 Christopher Dalton Beaumont in Thornbury, Gloucestershire

d. 9 Jul 1977 - Nelson, NZ 

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip files):

W.73 *	First Officer	Mrs Patricia Annette 'Ann' Blackwell
	b. 30 Mar 1913, Putney	24 Feb-42 to Dec-45

nee Noble

Father: Major Bertram W Noble OBE ("Messrs. B. W. Noble. Ltd. insurance and reinsurance brokers, of London and Paris"), mother Kate Elsie [Buckland]

m. 24 Oct 1935 in Knightsbridge, George Wilson Blackwell

  The Bystander

"They met at the International Marine Insurance Conference at Montreux in September 1933"

  (George moved to Canada, then the USA in October 1945 and became an American citizen.)

Postings: 6FPP, 4FPP

   Naomi Allen on the left, Ann 2nd right. 1942?

  Ann in a Typhoon [photos with thanks to Nicholas Thomas]

At least 4 Accidents, 1 her fault:

- 9 Aug 1942, a forced landing in Fairchild EV771, with a broken connecting rod

- 7 Nov 1942, in Hurricane I L1877, forced landing with low oil pressure and high oil temperature

- 20 Nov 1944, she failed to control a crosswind landing in Seafire III BF499, swung and damaged the port wing

- 20 Feb 1945, the tail wheel of Proctor III DX229 collapsed during landing

m. 1948 in Maidenhead, Hugh McLennan Kendall

d. Feb 1992 - Isle of Wight

W.155 *	3rd Officer	Mrs Rosemary Leslie [or Lesley] Bonnett
	b. 1 Sep 1918, Bristol	21 Feb-44 to Sep-45

 née Bell

 father: Percy Harrison Bell (2nd Lt in WWI, who gained an RAeC Certificate No 5298, in October 1917) , mother Adele Helene [Gellatly, a midwife, d. 1967 in S. Africa]

Grew up in South Africa (1924 - Jan 1936)

prev. a Secretary, typist

m. early 1942 Flt-Lt Dorian Dick Bonnett DFC

  (39 Sqn RAF, d. 24 Oct 1942 in Lancaster I W4306, which crashed in England on return from a daylight raid on Milan)

 [ab initio trainee]

Postings: 15FPP, 7FPP

2 accidents, both her fault:

- 14 Oct 1944, when taxying on wet grass and in windy conditions, her Argus I EV792 collided with marker flags

- 9 Aug 1945, taxying in Andon I AX319, she struck a motor sweeper and the aircraft was damaged.

 Gained her Royal Aero Club Pilot's Certificate (No 20610) as part of the ATA's 'Wings' scheme on 3 Oct 1945

m. Oct 1946 in Surrey, Flight Captain Phillip Lambert Gibbs

  (also an ex-ATA pilot)

m. 1949 in Kensington, London, Richard C Towers

 Address in 1989: Garden Farm, Tufton, Haverfordwest

d. 25 Jan 1989

W.120	3rd Officer	Mrs Barbara Petronella Bowyer
	b. 19 Sep 1917, Johannesburg SA	14 Jun 1943 to 31 Oct 1945

nee Reid 

Ed. Rosedean, S Africa, and Witwatersrand University

m. Jan 1943 in Chelsea, Sub-Lt Alan James Bowyer, an artist who served with the Royal Navy throughout the war

   this is one of his many paintings, "Squally Weather in the Channel" 

Address in 1943: 2 Manor Court, Hemus Court, London SW3

 Next-of kin changed from her husband to Mrs M Rivett-Carmac, Walnut Tree Cottage, 1 St Johns Rd, Wimbledon, then to (sister-in-law) Mrs Spreadbury, Battersea

Off sick from 7 to 23 Jan 1944 with influenza

2 accidents, neither her fault:

- 31 Jan 1944, a forced landing in a Swordfish after loss of oil pressure

- 20 Jun 1944, the rudder of her Argus was struck in mid-air by an Anson; in the subsequent forced landing the Argus turned over onto its back.

She changed her name to Cripps 27 Jan 1945:

and then when Alan Bowyer married Gladys [Brown] in October 1946, she married Mr Cripps:

m. Dec 1946 in Hendon, Derek Arthur Rivers Cripps, also an ex-ATA pilot

One child, Susan, b. Jul 1947

poss m.  Jul 1957 in Middlesex, Robert G Ostler

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip files):

Address in 1941: Empshott Lodge, Liss, Hants

Postings: 5FPP, 12FPP

 4-engine (Class 5) pilot

5 accidents, 2 her fault:

- 9 Jan 1941, when the rear cockpit cover of her Master fell off, damaging the tail;

- 26 Jun 1942, forced landing in an Airacobra;

- 13 Dec 1942, she failed to control the take-off swing of a Hudson;

- 30 Apr 1943, her Spitfire's port wing touched the ground on a difficult crosswind landing, and

- 11 Jul 1944, forced landing in an Anson.

A good natural pilot" "A capable pilot who is keen and quietly confident"

"Has proved to be a good second in command and was acting C.O. for 2 months with credit"

m. 1941 Cmdr Peter Hugh Bragg, RAF Boscombe Down

d. 1984

See her biography here - Felicity Bragg – solentaviatrix (wordpress.com)

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

Lettice, Jennie, Audrey, Gaby, Pauline, near Oxford

RAeC 1935

ATA

RAeC 1948

Father: Charles Cecil Broad (a farmer and inventor, m. 1939 Daisy [Bigglestone], d. Nov 1941), mother Dorothy

The family moved to Sussex in Jan 1922, when Jennie was 9

Ed. Bournemouth High School

Flight, April 1937:   "The chief attraction of the weekend was a demonstration of the Hillson Praga monoplane by Miss Jennie Broad. After she had put the machine through its paces, numerous members took the opportunity offered of going up with her in the machine."

According to the Blue Mountains Advertiser (Katoomba, NSW), Fri 18 Nov 1949: “Miss Jennie Broad first graduated as a pilot in 1934, and to add to her experience qualified as a ground engineer. By this she helped to meet her flying instruction expenses in overhauling engines for airline companies and working as a club engineer. She had many jobs in aviation, including flying passengers to air rallies in Holland and Belgium and demonstrating and selling light aircraft. Through the experience she gained in this field, she became England's first woman test pilot."

prev. Ground Engineer, W.A.A.F, (transport driver, then Assistant Section Officer, code and cypher).

prev. exp. 250hrs on Whitney Straight, Miles Hawk & Falcon, DH Moth & Puss Moth, Hillson Praga, Avian in Hololand, France and Belgium as well as UK.

Address in 1940: Hillside, Tongdean Rd, Hove, Sussex

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP

Class 3 pilot

Off sick from 19 Mar to 1 Apr 1941 with 'Pyrexial Debility'; 25 Jul to 9 Aug 1941 with 'Neuralgia & septic throat'; 25 Sep to 19 Oct 1941 with 'Pharyngitis' and 9 Feb to 6 Mar 1942 with 'Psychasthenis'

Contract terminated by ATA

(twice, actually - firstly on 5 Mar 1942, reinstated 23 Nov 1942, then 11 Jun 1943, on Medical Grounds)

4 accidents, 3 her fault:

- 8 Dec 1941, her Dominie X7449 nosed over, for reasons unknown

- 15 Dec 1942, a heavy landing in Spitfire Vc JG716 caused the port undercarriage leg to collapse

- 27 Mar 1943, she collided with a distributor trolley being towed by a tractor [Reprimanded]

- 21 May 1943, taking off in long grass, for some reason she thought the undercarriage of her Barracuda P9787 was "collapsing", so she selected 'Undercarriage Up'. "No fault found"

 "A keen and intelligent pilot of good average ability"

"She then joined a welfare organisation for the Royal Air Force and after a few weeks' training in Germany went to the Middle East, where she operated clubs on R.A.F. desert stations in Egypt and Iraq.”

After WWII, Jennie moved to Australia 'as a refugee from British bureaucracy' (reportedly saying "Australia is the only country in which to live these days"), and in 1951 joined the WRAAF as a 'Flight Officer, Administrative'.

By then, she had made her political views perfectly clear; she didn't like that there Socialism:

"In August 1948, I returned to England." she said. "When I had left, the country had had five years of the toughest time. They had had all the horrors of the blitz bombs, the doodlebugs and so on. But I had returned expecting to find my country free of some of the rules and directions of war. When I left the people had a tremendous hope for the future and were proud of the part their country had played. I spent two of the unhappiest months of my life there. Gone was the spring in the step of the people. They were tired and content to accept the rules that had been laid down for them. The queues were longer than ever. The people were living mainly on whale meat and fish. We got one egg every six weeks.

I could not understand it at all. But slowly it came to me. It was in 1945 that the Socialists took over. They came with the old Labour Party understanding on the part of the people. But it was not long before Mr. Attlee had nationalised everything he could lay hands on. Taxes were on such a scale that the worker found it paid him better to stay away from work at regular intervals. A large number of girls in the Post Office admitted that they had deliberately lost a day a fortnight because it paid them better to do so.

In 1947, we introduced the 'Engagement Order.’ In 1735 compulsory labour was abolished in England but it rested with a Labour Party to re-introduce it.

To-day there are at least three men who are serving terms of imprisonment because they refused to accept the work that was offered to them. Refusal to take the job offered means imprisonment. You see the people are gradually again being enslaved. In England, owing to the nearness of war, we had gone further along the road to compulsion in everything and Labour was presented with an already working scheme for the carrying out of their policy. In that regard the Labour Party in Britain was in a better position than was the case in Australia. We have our identity cards. If I move from town in town I have to register and re-register. When I return to England if I go abroad I have to register again. I decided to leave.it. We had won the war but lost our freedom. Nobody is allowed to follow his own will. If he works overtime, he is summoned and fined. In Australia they had been in danger of going along the same path but they had recovered in time and realised what it meant”

The Biz (Fairfield, NSW), Thu 15 Jun 1950:  "MEET JENNIE BROAD Fairfield residents have noticed an attractive young woman chatting with women in the shopping centre. It was Miss Jennie Broad, one of those courageous women who was a test pilot in Britain during the war. Charming and feminine, Jennie Broad has proved herself courageous during the war; and no less now is she displaying courage of a high degree.

Knowing the pitfalls of socialism in Great Britain, and the hardships it has brought upon the people who should now be enjoying a measure of relief from wartime restrictions, Jennie Broad came to Fairfield, when she heard 'a woman was standing for Parliament to oppose Socialism'. Although Miss Broad belongs to no political party, she says that she has seen the ill-effects of Socialism on family life, and she felt it her duty to come to Fairfield, meet the family people, and warn them to shake Socialism from their backs before it is too late.' Miss Broad speaks from personal experience, and she says she will address any gathering of women who, want to know the facts about Socialism and how it affects working people."

Mary Elllis wote: "I did hear that Jennie had married a Frank Roche of Bush Pilot Airways in Cairns, Australia and that in 1954 they both flew a Dragon Rapide from England to Australia. The aircraft was to be fitted out as a special flying ambulance to help those in need in the rural parts of South Australia. Frank Roche was killed the following year in a crop-spraying accident and Jennie, then a widow, moved away."

d. 30 Jun 2005 on Norfolk Island, Australia

"Jennie Broad 28 Jun 1912 to 30 Jun 2005. Pilot, Air Transport Auxiliary"

Di Ennew kindly tells me that "I spent 2 years on Norfolk Island, a small Australian territory (pop.approx.1600) about 1800km east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. We bought a house there and by strange coincidence Jennie Broad, one of your ATA pilots, was my direct neighbour.

She was quite reclusive and in the 6 years she was my neighbour prior to her death, we did not meet nor talk, as when offered the opportunity to meet by the seller of our house, she very promptly refused the invitation. She was well known on the island for her directness and it was wonderful to read about her. I knew she had had an amazing life in the ATA and I only wish she had been able to meet my father to share their experiences of England."

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Joan Irwin Broadsmith
	b. 23 Jul 1917, Withington Chester	24 Jun 1942 to 23 Aug 1942

Ed. Upper Chine School, Shanklin, IOW

prev: Ambulance Driver in Islington Green

prev exp: 30hrs solo

Her father, Harry Edgar Broadsmith (d. 1959 in Australia), was one of the original directors of Saunders-Roe.

"Adam Karolyi, right, with his girlfriend, Joan Broadsmith, in the cockpit of his plane. Adam was 21 when he died of his injuries after he crashed his plane in Sandown, just days before the Second World War started [actually G-AAAL belonging to the IOW Flying Club, on the 21 Aug, 1939]. He had planned to join the RAF."

[G-ABBX, in the photo above, also belonged to the Isle of Wight Flying Club].

Adam, 21, was flung from the wreckage but suffered 75 per cent burns and died in Shanklin Cottage Hospital the next day.

"His girlfriend, Joan Broadsmith, daughter of Saunders Roe’s managing director Harry Broadsmith, was so traumatised by Adam’s death she doused herself in paraffin and set herself alight but survived. "

See their story here:  http://www.iwcp.co.uk/

In 1939,  "Interested in aeroplanes since she was 14, and with a Flying Officer brother in the R.A.F., Empire Air Day is bound to hold a special interest for Miss Joan Broadsmith, of Cowes, who is working at Lee Airport, Sandown, to secure her ground engineer's licence. Miss Broadsmith, who is 21, is a member of the Civil Air Guard." Portsmouth Evening News, 18 May 1939

Address in 1942: 18 The Boulders, Binstead, Isle of Wight.

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

1961, in the Court of Appeal:  "Joan Irwin Broadsmith (Spinster) v Dora Helen Mary McCubbin (Widow):

Lord Justice Sellers: "Miss Broadsmith, the court has heard your submission and we have had the judgment of the learned judge read to us. Having given the best consideration we can to all that you have said, we see no reason to think that the learned judge was wrong. His judgment appears to us to be right and unimpeachable, and your appeal must be dismissed."

d. Feb 1993, IOW

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

nee Holmes

Address in 1940: Woodland Rise, Seal, Sevenoaks, Kent

Next of kin: husband, Anthony Brown MC. [d. Dec 1954. He was English, 16 years older than her, described as a 'Managing Director of a Printing Company' [Brown, Knight and Truscott], and they met in South Africa in the 1920s. He was there on business, she ran a driving school, they married and travelled together from South Africa to England in March 1926.

They lived at 'Broomhill', Southend Rd, Beckenham, Kent, and had one son, Philip, b. 1930; he later became a commercial pilot, encouraged by Grace.]

 "Mrs. Grace Brown flew for Air Dispatch (Mrs Victor Bruce's airline)".

"Air Dispatch Ltd was founded on 9 July 1934, and in 1935 started operating weekend freight (later also passenger) services from its base at Croydon Airport to Le Touquet and Le Bourget, Paris. In April 1935, Commercial Air Hire started passenger shuttle services between Croydon and Heston airports, under the name Inner Circle Air Lines, using GAL Monospar ST-4s. In 1935, Commercial Air Hire purchased an Avro 642 Eighteen16-seat airliner (G-ACFV) for newspaper delivery contracts, and Air Dispatch shared its use for bullion-carrying, excursions, joy-riding flights and scheduled passenger services, until mid-1936. [Mildred] Bruce was co-managing director, with Eric E. Noddings, of both closely linked companies, that were merged in 1936 as Air Dispatch Ltd.  Wikipedia

 In 1935, she flew Redhill Aero Club's Puss Moth to Brussels.

 r, with Gabrielle Patterson, in 1940  (Forgotten Pilots)

She was an early recruit for the ATA in May 1940 (actually, she joined just as the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk was taking place) but soon had to discontinue ferrying due to "getting into a poor state of health and being unfit for flying duties" - a confidential note some two years later says that "between ourselves, a little elbow-lifting was attached to it"

She asked for 3 months unpaid leave, on the understanding that ATA could offer to continue with her services at the end of it.

In the event, when she started back in December, she wrecked the port undercarriage leg of an Airspeed Oxford by selecting 'Undercarriage Up' instead of 'Flaps Up' after landing, and was dismissed shortly afterwards.

[Contract Terminated by ATA 28 Dec 1940]

During WWII, "Mrs (Grace) Brown astonished RAF pilots when she landed at an advanced airfield in France during the German attack, carrying consignments of blood for the wounded." An Illustrated History of the RAF (BoB 50th anniversary edition) by Roy Conyers Nesbit.

Her grand-daughter kindly tells me that "She was actually the first woman to fly to the Front, flying blood to the British Expeditionary Force as it retreated to Dunkirk.  She was one of the first six female pilots to hold the 'B' Licence (Commercial) in the U.K.  She was also a huge character:-) 

After the war, I don't think she flew again.  She seemed to enjoy buzzing around the country lanes in the sidecar of  a motor bike, driven my by father.  When Anthony died they had huge death duties to pay so had to sell up and move to a small house, still in Sevenoaks. She died in 1956, I believe. "

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.116	3rd Officer	Mrs Daphne Alice Burnside
	b. 19 Mar 1918, London	6 May 1943 to 11 Sep 1944

Not in 'Forgotten Pilots'

nee Humphrys

Father: Major Nugent Winter Humphrys (Manchester Regiment, BEF from 14 Aug 1914, d. 1931),

Mother: Blanche Ada de Vivefay [Wilson] (m.  Apr 1926 Sidney A Gaudion)

Ed. Wycombe Abbey

Sailed to Gibraltar with her mother in Oct 1935, was in Colombo in 1936, (Blanche sailed back to the UK in Jun 1937 and Aug 1938), sailed back to UK from Canada in Sep 1938

prev: Civilian Driver, French Diplomatic Corps

prev exp: 4hrs 30min in Magister, Hawk and Tiger Moth,  inc. Palestine, Egypt

Address in 1939: Newton Abbott, Devon

Address in 1943: (mother) 4 Lawrence Mansions, Cheyne Walk, London SW3

m. 1940 William A H B Burnside (a wireless operator)

[ab initio trainee]

Postings: 5FPP, 12FPP, 15FPP

Class I pilot

One accident, not her fault:

- 28 Jan 1944, her Tiger Moth nosed over while taxying, due to a Liberator in front suddenly opening up one of its engines

exp in ATA:

Magister: 102hrs 25min;

Hart: 15hrs 20min;

Fairchild: 67hr 50min;

Moth: 7hrs 25min;

Swordfish: 3hrs 15min;

Harvard: 26hrs 20min;

Hurricane: 5hrs 25min;

Spitfire: 13hrs 50min;

Auster: 3hrs 35min;

Barracuda: 4hrs 45min;

Fulmar: 50min;

Master: 4hrs 10min;

Miles Falcon: 1hr 05min;

Mustang: 1hr 10min;

Proctor: 1hr 25min.

She and William lived in 'Overmead', Lingfield, Surrey [until 1946, when he married Margaret H Grady]

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1929

King's Cup 1933

Lois and Winnie at Hatfield

née Reed

the "beautiful" [so said Harald Penrose] wife of Alan Butler. (Later, the 'Flying Grandmother')

Her first husband (Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh William Knox-Niven) having died in 1923, she married Alan Butler in 1925; together they had a daughter and a son.

15th in the Women’s Combined Alpine Skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics, skating for her native Canada (although she was a member of the British Team before that).

Postings: 5FPP

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

Completed more than 1,000 hours, in 36 types of aircraft.

2 accidents, neither her fault:

- 24 Jan 1942, the wing flaps of Hurricane AG202 were damaged by water from melting snow, during a precautionary landing at Abingdon

- 6 Aug 1942, a forced landing at Cranwell in Anson DG761, after starboard engine failure

Post-WWII, the Butlers moved to Rhodesia and bought a tobacco farm, but eventually moved back to Studham Hall, Bedfordshire.

She owned a 1930 DH.80A Puss Moth G-ABGX, which was sold in France in December 1934, re-registered as F-AMRX and whose registration was finally cancelled in 1936.

d. 17 Aug 1970 in Piraeus, Attiki, Greece from a heart attack while on holiday, and is buried in Studham.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Butler

W.---	Cadet	Maud Agnes 'Molly' Calver
	b. 13 Apr 1910, Wix Essex	24 Jun-42 to 30 Jun-42 (7 days)

RAeC, 18 Oct 1936 (Member of London General Omnibus Co ("the Busmen's") Flying Club)

Daily Herald, 29 Jul 1936

Father: William Calver, mother Edith Annie 

Ed. Mistley Council School

prev: Stewardess, Welfare Dept, London Transport

Next of kin (mother) Annie Plummer, 47 Victor Rd, Hythe, Colchester

prev exp: 14 hrs 

Address in 1936: 9 Basedale Rd, Dagenham, Essex

Address in 1942: 58 Green Lane, Ilford, Essex

"Molly Calver pours out tea every day for the busmen at her London garage. Each time she hopes it will be the last time. She paid her subscription of sixpence a week when the London Transport Flying Club started"

"From bus garage canteen stewardess to air ferry pilot is the wartime change by Miss Molly Calver, only woman among the 1,200 members of London Transport's Central Buses Flying Club. She'll soon be leaving her job at Dalston to become a member of Air Transport Auxiliary. " - Daily Mirror - Wednesday 21 January 1942

[Resigned]

m. Jan 1949 Joseph T Pulham

   Daily Mirror 15th May 1953

"Molly Calver seated in her aircraft before taking off at Chobham. Molly is a stewardess employed by London Transport at their Romford Garage and has worked for the London Transport Board for 20 years, but only very few of her hundreds of workmates realised that she is 'an old sweat' aeroplane pilot during World War II.

Before the war, Molly was a pilot in the London Transport Road Services Sports Association Flying Club and, during the war years, was an Air Transport Auxiliary Pilot, ferrying all types of aircraft. "

[Hmmm]

Later Mrs Warr(?)

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.96	2nd Officer	Emily Chapin
	b. 22 Nov 1912, Twin Falls ID	12 Aug-42 to 11 Feb-44

Father: Charles Hall Chapin, Advertising Manager for the White Rock Mineral Co. in NYC (d. 1960)

Ed. Wellesley College, MA

Next of kin: (mother) Mrs Dorothy [Traill]

prev: File Supervisor for Standard Oil Co of New Jersey

 prev. exp. 203 hrs

Address in 1942: 291 Rye Beach Ave, Rye, NY

Postings: 15FPP

She was reprimanded in April 1943 for "careless taxying resulting in accident, when the propeller of her Master II struck a marking flag.

2 other accidents, one her fault:

- 27 Jul 1943, forced landing in a Spitfire, which was damaged, "due to an error of judgement on the part of the pilot" (the hood blew off in flight. Presumably she was held to blame because she had failed to secure it properly);

- 16 Nov 1943, she made a forced landing in a Swordfish which developed high oil pressure and temperature.

(2nd L) with Bobby Sandoz and 'a couple of fellow Yanks' at the Red Cross Club, 1943

She flew 18 types of aircraft (Class 1 and 2) with the ATA.

"A keen and hardworking pilot whose confidence appeaqrs to have been shaken by her recent (Jul-43) accident. Discipline good."

Later a WASP, then an engineer for General Precision Laboratories and the Singer Corporation.

d. 23 Jul 1978 - Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, New York

Her wartime correspondence is in the Texas Woman's University Collection:

https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p214coll2/id/3052/rec/1

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.154	3rd Officer	Suzanne Palmer Chapman
	b. 8 Dec 1918, Swansea	21 Feb 1944 to 30 Sep 1945

mother: [Mills]

Postings: 15FPP

  ATAM

(r) with Flt-Capt Coltman

One accident, not her fault:

- 1 Oct 1944, she ground-looped in Argus I EV809, due to a faulty port wheel casting

Gained her Royal Aero Club Pilot's Certificate (No 20592) as part of the ATA's 'Wings' scheme on 29 Sep 1945

Address in 1945: Fernbank, Murton, Bishopstown, Swansea, S Wales

In 1949, she was a staff pilot at Hereford airfield.

m. 1951 in Hereford, John H Ashton

In 1956, Veronica Volkersz wrote that Suzanne was one of only 7 women flying commercially: -  "Suzanne Ashton flies an Auster 'talking aeroplane' on advertising work"  - and concluded that "The tragedy is that for women, commercial aviation is now - except, possibly, in Russia - a closed field."

[The others were Jackie Moggridge, Monique Rendall, Jean Bird, Zita Irwin, Diana Barnato-Walker and Freydis Leaf]

m. 1961 in Swansea, Richard John Hart

d. 5 Feb 2011 - Swansea

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.39	First Officer	Victoria Millicent Cholmondeley
	b. 5 Mar 1902, Longford, Tasmania	10 Mar 1941 to 30 Nov 1945

Father: Richard Vernon Cholmondeley, (vigneron, Hurtle Vale Vineyard Happy Valley near Adelaide, d. 1918); mother: Hilda Georgiana [Leyland], by 1941 living in South Africa

brothers Richard Vernon (b. 1909, 2nd Lieut, Royal Scots Fusiliers, d. 27 May 1940 in Belgium) and Charles Christopher (b. 1917); sisters Hilda Georgina (b. 1901), Lettice (b. 1911) and Caroline Ethel (b. 1913)

Travelled to Adelaide in Jul 1906, to the UK in Jan 1920, then to New Zealand in Oct 1922, to Canada from the UK in 1928, then back to the UK in Aug 1931

Her "large pointer dog" was stolen in Gepp's Cross, S. Australia in 1925

First woman in South Australia to get a pilot's licence:

 1929

via Jerome Wells

Address in 1932: Leighton Hall, Welshpool, Montgomeryshire (with sister Lettice)

prev. Farmer; "Branch of the War Office" from 3 Sep 1939

Address in 1941: 18 Queens Gate Place Mews,. London SW7 (with brother Flt-Lt Charles Christopher Cholmondeley MBE and sister Hilda Georgina)

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

King's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air

Still living at 18 Queens Gate Mews, with Charles and Hilda, in 1956, but alone there in 1964 after Hilda moved to Dorset and Charles got married.

d. 13 Jan 1986 - Hereford

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Helen Riddell Clark
	b. 6 Sep 1917, Selkirk	8 May 1944 to 10 Jun 1944

 Father: W M Clark

Ed. Dame Alice Owen's School (then in Islington, London - now Potter's Bar, coincidentally)

prev: Insurance Typist, Meteorologist

Address in 1944: 428 Mutton Lane, Potters Bar, Middlesex

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 m. 1949 Philip (Greberg) Clark

d. 1963 - Brechin

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.30	2nd Officer	Edna Violet 'Sammy' Clayton
	b. 26 Jul 1900, Hampstead, London	1 Mar 1941 to Feb 1942

RAeC 1936

The Sketch, 1942

née Samuel

Father: Barnett Samuel (a financial broker, d.1925), mother Annie Leah [Barnett] (d. 1933)

Ed. St Paul's Girls School; Slade School of Art

2 sisters (Amelia b. 1891, Olga Esther b. 1893, later Mrs Roys), 1 brother (Ivor Dudley b. 1894)

m. 5 Mar 1927 in Hampstead, Harold Clayton (later Sqn-Ldr with No 40 Group, Andover)

Address in 1936: 128 Dorset House, Gloucester Place, London NW1

prev. 1939- Dec 1940 Section Cadet Officer, Mechanised Transport Corps

prev. exp. 87 hrs on Tigers [sic], Hornet Moth, Puss Moth, Potez, Tanpin, Swallow in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, America, Czechoslovakia, UK

Address in 1941: 36 Viceroy Court, Prince Albert Rd, London NW8

------------------

Harold and Edna contested the will of Edna's father, Barnett Samuel, in 1941.

Briefly, Barnett had left Edna a large legacy, but specified that she would forfeit it if she married someone "who is not of Jewish parentage and of the Jewish faith"

"This is a case in which the testator has sought, in the words of the Master of the Rolls, to direct the lives of his children from the grave... to control his daughter Edna's choice of a husband."

Now, Harold Clayton was an English Wesleyan, "not in any possible sense of the words a person of Jewish parentage, nor has he been at any time in any possible sense of the words a person of the Jewish faith"

... which sounds like an open and shut case, but No!

In a rather Dickensian twist, their appeal was (thankfully, IMHO) upheld as (I can only quote the judgement): "It is true that, on any possible construction of the clause Mr. Clayton was disqualified. But any possible construction is not the question: the actual construction must be certain: and as it is not the Appeal succeeds."

So there you have it. Hope that's clear.

[On her application form for ATA, Edna gave her religion as 'Protestant']

 Postings: 5FPP

 Described herself as an 'Artist' when emigrating to Kenya in Nov 1957 (and was either widowed or divorced at the time)

d. 13 Aug 1970 - Nairobi, Kenya

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.72	Flight Captain	Jacqueline 'Jackie' Cochran-Odlum
	b. 11 May 1906	24 Jan-42 to Jul-42

 prev. exp. approx 2,000 hrs ("These hours are reasonably accurate as my logbook was left in America") on "Fleet, Travel Air Trainer, Waco 210 Continental, Northrop Gamma, GB 750hp Cyclon, Beechcraft, Douglas DC-2, Douglas DC-3, Lockheed 12, 14 & Lodestar, and many light type aircraft."

Jackie started her ATA Class 1 Training on 31 Mar 1942 and completed it on 1 Jun 1942, having flown Magister (8hrs 20min), Wicko (3hrs 55min), and Fairchild (8hrs 05min).

d. 1980

Well-known, and well-documented elsewhere:

e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Cochran

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

née Morin, father Alexandre Ovide Morin

Educated at the Institut Normal Catholique Adeline Desir, Paris

m. Oct 1931 in Woking, Surrey, William Marcus Colby, b. 1903, a Stockbroker (partner in Walter, Walker & Co. from 1933) :

They got their RAeC Certificates at the same time [and look, they had their photos taken in the same place!]

Address in 1941: The Tile House, East Horsley, Surrey

However, in 1941 she gave her next of kin as her sister, Mrs D. West, 666 Kensington Gardens, London W8.

[William was in the RAF from December 1939 to August 1945]

Postings: 5FPP

She had one accident: 20 Nov 1941, at White Waltham, in Hart L7213 - "Unsuccessful forced landing after engine failure due to (1) incorrect cockpit drill prior to take-off and (2) failure to make quick survey of cockpit which would have revealed that main petrol cock was off."

She was then off sick until the 2 Dec, returned briefly but then off sick again from the 9 Dec to the 17th.

Contract Terminated 31 Dec 1941

d. 1995, Surrey [William d. 1991]

RAeC 1930

The daughter of Sir Kenneth Irwin, 2nd Baronet Crossley, Chairman of the Crossley Car and Engineering companies in Manchester.

In 1919, the Crossley family moved to Combermere Abbey, Whitchurch, Shropshire and her father held the offices of High Sheriff and Justice of the Peace for Cheshire. These days, although it continues in private ownership, Combermere Abbey ‘welcomes visitors in groups or on specific days by appointment’. It has been described as ‘one of the most romantic places in Europe’ .

Gained her pilot’s licence in 1930. She only competed in the King’s Cup once - in 1931, when she was the only woman competitor to finish, a gallant 20th out of the 21 finishers (another 20 dropped out on the way, don't forget).

August 1931 found her in Dublin; "Among the visitors was one who deserved especial mention, and that was the intrepid Miss Crossley, who put up such a fine show in the recent King's Cup race. She flew the long way round, and is now continuing to tour the country."

In 1932, she visited India, where "we hear she has been doing a considerable amount of flying." In fact, she competed in the Viceroy Cup (India's version of the King's Cup) with 5 other English pilots and 6 from India.

She also competed in several other races and gatherings, e.g.

• Ladies event at Reading (May, 1931) - the other competitors were Amy Johnson, Pauline Gower, Dorothy Spicer, Gabrielle Burr (Patterson), Susan Slade, and Winifred Spooner - a historic gathering indeed.

• London-Newcastle, August 1932, in Comper Swift G-ABUA; finished 11th of 18
• Yorkshire Tophy Race, September 1932 (not placed);
• Heston-Cardiff, October 1932, also in Comper Swift G-ABUA; finished 3rd of 9
• the second 'Bienvenue Aerienne' in France (July 1934)

Delia with C C Grey (editor of 'The Aeroplane'), Mrs Grey, Connie Leathart and others.

She also entered her Comper Swift in the 1932 King's Cup Race, but withdrew before the start, and seems to have retired from air racing in 1935.

On the outbreak of WWII, Delia became an ambulance driver for the London County Council, but then applied for a job as a ferry pilot for the ATA. She started as a Second Officer on the 16th December 1940, but suffered a bout of 'corozyia' (presumably coryza, i.e. catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membrane in the nose) which kept her out for 6 weeks in October/November 1941, so that she didn't complete her training and start at a Ferry Pool until December 1941.

A few weeks later, on the 11th Januuary 1942, she had an accident in a Hurricane; when landing in bad weather, she overshot and went through a hedge. She was considered to be at fault, having 'persisted too far in bad weather and had to land in conditions which were too difficult for her', and her contract was terminated a couple of weeks later.

She married Geza O Schubert in September 1949.

Fidelia’s de Havilland D.H. 60G Gipsy Moth G-AAKC (seen here behind G-AACY) was first registered in July 1929, and she bought it from Malcolm Campbell Ltd, the Moth distributors for the UK. She eventually passed it to her father, and it was then sold in South Africa in 1937.

Her Comper Swift was first registered in February 1932 to  J D M Gray, and she sold it to Arthur H Cook (q.v.). It ended up in Indonesia.

d. c.1980

... and there's a splendid page about 'Combermere's Pioneering Aviatrix Delia Crossley' here, written by the archivist at Combermere Abbey.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

nee Harrisson

Her father was a G.P. Dr. Ernest  Henry Harrisson and they lived at 'The Priory' and/or 'The Shrubbery', St Neots. He was famous for bringing the St Neots [Miles] quadruplets into the world in 1935.

She had an older brother [John Ernest McRae], a  twin sister [Daphne Louisa], a younger brother George Granville, and a younger sister Muriel (b. 1912).

Educated at Burchett House, Dorking

m. Sep 1926 James Francis 'Frank' Crossley. In 1930 they lived in Mallowry, Riseley, N. Beds.

They had 1 child, John James, b. 1929 (he apparently "often flew with her.") **

 The Tatler, 1935

prev. exp 1866 hrs on 'most single engine types; slight knowledge of twins'.

Owned a DH Gyspy Moth I in 1935. Learnt to fly at the Norfolk and Norwich Aero Club.

prev. performed aerobatics with CWA Scott's 'Flying for All' Aerial Circus:

Mrs. Crossley, the Display's lady aerobatic pilot, with Master Rice (whose father deals with the publicity) and the Hillson-Praga Baby monoplane.  [Flight, Apr 1936)

3 Sep 1936: (Flying for All) "Mrs. Winifred Crossley provides one of the most amazing features of the display. She is the first woman acrobatic pilot, and although she has only been flying for two years she has reached a surprisingly high standard."

... then the only woman pilot for Air Publicity Ltd, Heston from 1936, towing advertising banners; for example, in July 1937 she flew over Whitehall towing a banner reading "Give All Civil Servants Pensions".

Lived in Gamlingay, Beds from 1932-39. Represented Bedfordshire at lawn tennis.

Address in 1940: Newhaven Court Hotel, Cromer, Norfolk

4-engine (Class 5) pilot

Postings: Hatfield, 5FPP, 9FPP, 6FPP, 4FPP

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

"General Conduct: Average. Qualities of Leadership: Not markedly good. A pleasant and amiable person who is friendly and helpful to her less experienced colleagues."

"Has now cultivated a sense of responsibility. Very reliable pilot."

  with Joan Hughes in 1940

In 1944 Norman Whitehurst wrote: "A smooth and polished pilot. She is apprehensive of poor weather to an extraordinary degree for such an experienced and good pilot. Discipline is fair and her influence, which is considerable, is not perhaps always in the best interests of the unit. She has lately shown improvement in this respect. She is at all times an amiable person of great charm and is extremely kind-hearted."

 ELC

Separated from her first husband Frank; in 1943 she married Canadian airline captain Peter Cleugh Fair, later General Manager of BOAC-owned Bahamas Airways in Nassau.

Daily Record - Thursday 09 September 1943: "FLYING ROMANCE. Mrs. WINIFRED CROSSLEY, one of Britain’s finest women fliers, is spending a golfing holiday in Ayrshire with her fiance, Captain P. C. Fair, of British Airways. Slim, dark-haired, she is the daughter of the late Dr. E H Harrison, who brought the St. Neots quads into the world. She flew milk for the quads from London daily during the first weeks of their life. Captain Fair, who has been flying for 18 years, says that his bride-to-be is a better pilot than himself. She has done 4,000 flying hours, probably far more than any other woman in the world."

Peter Cleugh Fair (b. 18 May 1906 in Ontario) had travelled to England in 1927 and joined the RAF. He was promoted to Flying Officer in Dec 1928, was stationed at Uxbridge in 1934, and eventually was placed on the retired list at his own request in April 1937.

In  January 1955, when 'fun-loving royal' Princess Margaret flew from London to Trinidad for an official visit, she was piloted by "Captain Peter Cleugh Fair, 48-year old Canadian who has flown the Atlantic nearly 400 times.

Captain Fair is one of BOAC's senior commanders and has logged more than 13,000 flying hours."

** Sadly, her son died in 1950: "On November 18, 1950, at Bovey Tracey. John James Crossley, only son of Mr. Frank Crossley and Mrs. Winifred Fair" Western Morning News

Western Times - Friday 24 November 1950: "LOSS TO PARISH.—The death of Mr. John Crossley has cast a gloom over local cricketing circles. Deceased was only about 22, and had been a playing member of the Bovey Tracey Cricket Club for some years. He lived at Harbertonford. His death came with tragic suddenness. He was at Bovey Tracey on Thursday night last, and, not feeling very well, went to bed. Returning to his home, he became worse, and on Saturday was removed to Bovey hospital, where he died soon after admission. Only a fortnight ago he received the president's bat for being the best all-rounder for last season. Mr. Crossley was a nephew of Dr. John Harrison, the president of Bovey Tracey Cricket Club. There was a large attendance at the funeral service held in Bovey Tracey parish church. The Rev. G. O. C. Duxbury, M.A.. vicar, officiated. Members of the club acted as bearers."

l to r Ann Wood-Kelly, Lettice Curtis, Ruth Ballard and Winnie, Nassau 1957 (ELC)

They came back to the UK to visit Alan and Lois Butler in Studham in 1960.

Peter died in 1961, and was buried with his mother [Sophia Meiklejohn Cleugh Fair] and brother [Howard Cleugh Fair] in Pennsylvania. 

Winnie moved back to the UK and d. 1984 in Aylesbury, Bucks.

[Ultimate trivia fact: Winifred's younger sister Muriel married Peter Fair's brother Alfred!] 

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.121	3rd Officer	Joan Cunnington
	b. 22 Jan 1921, London	1 Jun 1943 to 13 Sep 1944

Father: John Leslie Cunnington, mother Florence Chosa [Downes]

Ed. Loretta Convent, Colmel, Eire and Pitmans College, London

prev: Secretary, ATA from Nov-41

Address in 1943: "Crowland", 84 Broadwalk, Winchmore Hill, London N.21

[Ab Initio trainee]

Postings include: 7FPP

One accident, her fault:

- 7 Nov 1943, she made a heavy landing in a Swordfish II and the undercarriage collapsed

Contract Terminated 13 Sep 1944

 d. 1977?

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1933

Dec 1939

 Ed. Laurel Bank School, Glasgow.

Father: Professor James Cunnison, of 19 Montrose Gardens, Milngavie, Dumbartonshire.

5 foot 2, eyes of, er, hazel. Veronica Inness described her as "a rather dour little Scotswoman"

From May 1937, Chief Flying Instructor with the Strathtay Aero Club, Perth (the one in Scotland). She was only the second woman in Scotland to gain a commercial pilot’s licence, and the first to become a flying instructor. 

 Jun 1937, with quite tall members of Strathtay Aero Club

"Miss Margaret Cunnison, flying instructress of Strathtay Aero Club, Perth, giving some wrinkles to a pupil"  - The Courier and Advertiser, 13 Jul 1937

She married Major Geoffrey Bruce Ebbage, an ophthalmic surgeon with the RAMC, in 1941.

She then became one of the 'First 8' women ATA pilots, joining on the 1st January 1940 as a Second Officer.

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

After couple of years at Hatfield, she was posted to Luton as an instructor; her report at the time said she "is a steady and reliable pilot. She works extremely hard and has proved invaluable as an instructor on light types".

She was promoted to Flight Captain in Feb 1942, but suffered a bout of appendicitis from July to October, and then went off sick again on the 19th December 1942 and never returned to the ATA; her contract was terminated in March 1943.

She did, indeed, only work on 'light types'; her log book shows 'Moth, Magister, Courier, Master, Oxford, Hart, Proctor, Rapide, Anson and Piper Cub'.

d: 4 January, 2004, in Haddington, aged 89 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Cunnison

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1937

Father: Walter Septimus Curtis, The 'Lord of the Manor', Denbury Manor, Newton Abbott, Devon; mother, Eleanor Frances [Master]

6 siblings, inc.  Robert M (b. 1920), and 4 sisters inc Lillias Marion, (b. 1902), Rosemary (b. 1905), Adelaide Gabrielle (b. 1909), and Evelyn (b. 1922)

Ed. Benenden School, Cranbrook; St Hilda's College Oxford (BA Mathematics)

 prev. exp. 440 hrs on "Puss, Leopard, Tiger & wooden Moths", Swallow, Hornet, Spartan

prev. C. L. Surveys Ltd., Southampton

  Postings: 15FPP, 6FPP, 5FPP, 1FPP

4-engine (Class 5) pilot

 Off sick from 23 Apr to 7 May 1944 after her flying accident in the Typhoon

4 accidents, one her fault:

- 22 Aug 1942, brake failure when landing in a Havoc II

- 18 Jul 1943, starboard engine failure in an Anson

- 10 Jul 1943, she opened the throttles of her Mosquito VI too rapidly and the aircraft swung

- 22 Apr 1944, she crashed in a Typhoon after complete engine failure when approaching to land.

"Flying exceptional. Discipline greatly improved. When in her best mood her behaviour is impeccable but when in her worst, Oh Lord!"

"Shows a tendency to disregard the interests of others"

In August 1948 she set a new international women's record for the 100-kllometres closed circuit of 313.07 mph (flying a Spitfire XI owned by the United States Embassy) In the Lympne high-speed flying handicap, beating Jacqueline Cochran's 1940 record.

wrote:

- 'The Forgotten Pilots' (1985); 

- 'Winged Odyssey' (1993)

- 'Lettice Curtis - her autobiography' (2004)

 d. 21 Jul 2014 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettice_Curtis

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Sylvia Cyphus
	b. 27 Oct 1920, Stow-on-Wold, Glos	29 Jan-44 to 22 Mar-44

Father: Arthur Cyphus (a farm labourer), mother Lily [Archer]

Ed. Council School, Gt Rissington; Westwards Grammar School, Northleach (School Cert.)

prev: from May 1939, Telephonist, GPO Cheltenham

Address in 1944: 11 Great Rissington, nr Cheltenham, Glos

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 m. Oct 1963 in Cheltenham, Goldwin How(e) Edwards (d. 1992)

 d. Oct 1978 - Cheltenham

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Mercedes 'Baba' d'Anacker
	b. 7 Oct 1916, Aldershot	31 Mar 1942 to 8 Apr 1942

Father: Valentine Otto d'Anacker; mother Eva Mary [Savage]

  1939. "Mummy's Vauxhall & Daddy's M.G." - Ancestry

Address in 1936: "Elvern", Hindhead, Surrey

prev exp: 50hrs on Gypsy/Tiger Moth

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 m. Jul 1943 in Surrey, George Walter Courtland Baker (a Canadian soldier) (2 sons)

Moved to Toronto, Canada

  Ancestry

d 2015 - Brampton, Ontario

https://www.wardfuneralhomes.com/memorials/mercedes-baker/2017248/obit.php?&printable=true

W.102	3rd Officer	Mrs Joy Dorothy Lilian 'Jane' Davies
	b. 12 Feb 1916, Cambridge	16 Sep-42 to Mar-43

Not in 'Forgotten Pilots' or 'Brief Glory'

née Pond

Father: Henry William Pond, mother Dorothy Rosie [Piggott]

Ed. County Girls School, Cambridge

prev: Secretarial/Clerical, Marshalls of Cambridge

prev exp: 11hrs 10min on DH Moths

m. 1940 RAF F/O (pilot instructor) Renford Percy Davey [widowed -  Renford d. 9 May 1941, shot down by an intruder at Sibson, Leics during a night training flight]

m. Apr 1942 in Swindon,

  RAeC 1938

Derrick Stephen 'Steve' Davies (b. 6 Feb 1907, a solicitor)( 2 daughters and a son John Anthony Renford Davies)

exp in ATA:

Magister: 100hrs 40min;

Hart: 11hrs 50min;

Fairchild: 14hrs 05min;

Tutor: 1 hr.

[Resigned 11 Mar-43]

Her daughter tells me: "Incidentally the reason she resigned  in 1943 was because she became pregnant - with me"

The family moved to Egypt in 1947, and to Kenya in 1953

d. Dec 2008

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Mavis Agnes Kennard Davis
	b. 13 Feb 1917, Tenterden Kent	24 Jan 1944 to 24 Mar 1944

Father: Leonard James  Kennard Davis (Private in Royal East Kent Regiment, d. 1 May 1944 in Italy), mother Annie Mavis

prev: secretary, Foreign Office

Address in 1944: Forstal House, Selling, nr Faversham, Kent

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

d. 11 Aug 1977 - Chelsea

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1930

1933

Father: Rupert Gustavus Muntz, a clerk (b. 1863 in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, m. 1906, d. 1914); Mother: Lucy Elsie [also Muntz] (d. 1955)

m. 1933 in Chester, William Fettis 'Frank' Davison, an 'engineer (railway rolling stock)', later owner and manager of Hooton Aerodrome in Cheshire:

   RAeC 1927

Co-Director, with Frank, of Utility Airways Ltd

'B' Licence holder. Prev. Exp: 1,265 hrs

 [divorced]

 Elsie Joy Muntz, who was always known as Joy, and signed herself as ‘E. Joy Davison’, originally wrote to Pauline Gower in early December 1939:

“My Dear Pauline,
I have just this minute got wind of the W.S.A.T.A [Women’s Section Air Transport Auxiliary], and would very much like some further details about it.
At present I am flying for the N.A.C. with Portsmouth, Southsea and I.O.W. Aviation, based at Cardiff, but I am not particularly impressed, though the pay is reasonably good. Could you let me know how much the ATA are offering as a salary, and whether (if you know yet) there will be any chances of promotion later, or will one stay for ever as a Second Officer?
My experience at the moment is nearly 1,300 hours, of which about 600 is on twins and about 100 night. Normal peace-time occupation is Commercial Pilot; age is 29; not married any more (since 20/11/39!) ‘B’ Licence No 2567. Types flown: Moth, Avian, Puss Moth, Fox Moth, Cadet, Swift, Desoutter, Drone, Proga, Monospar, Tiger Moth, Klemm, Airspeed Courier, Airspeed Ferry, Miles Falcon; Privately owned: Cadet; experience: British Isles only.
My best wishes to Dorothy, if you should see her, and of course to yourself.”

By the 9th of December, however, she wrote:
“My Dear Pauline,
Many thanks for your letter and dope enclosed, also for the further circular letter from BA detailing salary etc.
Sorry old thing, but I fear the dough isn’t good enough, particularly considering one would be flying open cockpit stuff for a large majority of the time! Afraid I’m getting soft or old or something, but when I’ve got a job which pays about twice as well and where one earns one’s money in more or less comfort, the change offers no worthwhile attractions! Nevertheless I wish you all very well, and if any of you should happen to come to Cardiff for any reason do look me up. Of course I may be away I can give no promises!
Let me know when you have time and things have progressed a bit further, which of our flying females you have roped in!
Best of wishes to you, my dear, and the very best of luck to you. Awfully glad they picked you to be at the head of this thing. May it and you go far together!”

Six months later, and things had moved on somewhat:
“Dear Pauline,
Herewith the dope about me. Since chatting on the phone, I’ve managed to get some extra petrol to cover the trip to Hatfield by car, so think maybe it would save time if I were to come through while the contracts going through official channels – what do you think? If you agree send me a wire, and I’ll pack up and come pronto. Point is, the posts here are awful and I didn’t get your letter till this morning so a whole day was wasted which in these times is the devil!!
What sort of digs accommodation is there around Hatfield? Pretty crowded I reckon.
Am looking forward to coming a lot and so glad I can be of assistance. I’ll tell you more about what’s kept me out of it since N.A.C. cracked up, when I see you!”

Joy started on the 1st of July, 1940.

Exactly one week later, unbelievably, tragically, she died in a crash.

The accident report said that the aircraft made a ‘spiral dive’ (not a spin) at about 600-700ft. "It continued in this spiral until it hit the ground and eye-witnesses, who are experienced pilots, state that they had no reason to consider that it was out of control but, for some unknown reason, it remained in the spiral until it hit the ground."

The pilot/instructor, Sgt l’Estrange was an exceptionally experienced instructor and was well acquainted with Master aircraft; Joy, as we have seen, was an exceptionally experienced pilot on many different types of aircraft.
No cause was ever found for the crash. One theory was that carbon monoxide leaked into the cockpit (despite Joy’s prediction, and unlike many pre-war Miles designs, the Master had an enclosed cockpit) and rendered the two of them unconscious.

Her many friends were aghast; Jennie Broad, who had also just joined the ATA, wrote to Pauline the very next day (9th July):
“Dear Miss Gower,
I would appreciate any information you are able to give me of Mrs Davison’s accident. We were old friends and if there is anything I can do please do not hesitate to let me know at once.
I have written to Mrs Davison’s mother, but as she will probably be in Hatfield before she receives my letter, will you be so kind as to give her, or anyone else representing her, my address and ask them to get in touch with me?”

Pauline wrote straight away to Joy’s mother:
“I should like you to know how we shall miss your daughter. She was a most kind and cheerful member of this Section, and a first class pilot. May I offer you our most sincere sympathy in your bereavement."

Cremated at Bristol.

Nearly a year later, on the 4th July 1941, Joy’s sister, Hope Muntz, wrote to Pauline Gower, asking her if possible to ‘write a few lines to my mother on the 8th…. If you could give any news of the ATA and of Jenny Broad & Mrs Patterson I know she would be so pleased.”

Pauline, of course, did write, to say; “we shall be thinking of Joy and wishing she could still be with us.” 

Postscript:

Frank had married fellow aviator Margaret Ann Longstaffe in 1939:

  1935

and 3 years after he was killed in a sailing accident in 1949, she became the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.44	First Officer	Mary Berta de Bunsen
	b. 29 May 1910. Madrid, Spain	1 Aug 1941 to 1 Aug 1945

1934

ATA

1932

Mary was born in Madrid, the daughter of Sir Maurice William Ernest de Bunsen, Bart, GCMG, GCVO, CB, the British Ambassador there.

 "Miss Mary de Bunsen, the youngest daughter of Sir Maurice and Lady de Bunsen, is making her debut this year" - The Bystander, 1928

She had been dragged round dances and hunt balls by her parents in the hope of finding her a suitable husband - these were, of course, in short supply after the carnage of WWI. "I was far too innocent to realise... that with a lame leg [after a childhood attack of polio] and horn-rimmed glasses I stood no chance whatever". 

She ws an aeronautical journalist, especially writing about women pilots - see http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/pioneering-women?filter_tag[0]=24

When WWII broke out, she joined the London Auxiliary Fire Service as a driver, and then, on the 1 May 1941, the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service.

"In May 1940 Air transport Auxiliary tested my flying and turned me down, for I was very rusty and the standard for women was still high. But it was a bitter moment, for those of us who were accepted that day had the dewy, sparkling look of souls reborn"

Wrote "Gliding with the Germans" in 1940

Address in 1941: Redwode, Chiddingford, Surrey

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP, 16FPP, 7FPP

"Wears spectacles. Slight Limp"

 Class 4+ Pilot

9 accidents, 

- 2 Jan 1942, an error of judgement in Hurricane L1975, but she was not held responsible as she had "never passed through T.P."

- 2 May 1942, a wheels-up landing in Spitfire P7623 after the selector lever jammed

- 2 Sep 1942, her Spitfire EP825 nosed over after she taxied into an unmarked soft patch

- 9 Sep 1942, a poor landing in Spitfire Vb (Tropical) ER266 damaged one undercarriage leg

- 26 Nov 1942, the undercarriage of her Spitfire Vc ES111 collapsed on landing, due to a fault

- 16 Feb 1943, yet another Spitfire (MB274) undercarriage collapse; this time she was held to blame as she had failed to control the swing in a crosswind landing

- 5 Oct 1944, a forced landing in Avenger II JZ427 after the engine cut intermittently

- 21 Dec 1944, the starboard engine of her Hudson I P5419 caught fire when starting

- 20 Apr 1945, a forced landing in Anson I PH693 after suffering low oil pressure and high engine temperature

"This pilot has been a great asset to the Pool, (7FPP), both as regards to her flying and also in respect of social activities. She voluntarily undertoook the duties of Mess Secretary, and has been tireless in her efforts to make a success of everything she has undertaken"

She wrote the excellent "Mount up with Wings" in 1960, about her life, her time in the ATA, and her life-saving heart surgery.

d. 1982 - Weymouth, Dorset.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

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

nee Aime Gholdstein Jonklaas

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

Two brothers, Ernest and Cecil; one sister, Evelyn Ninette

[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]

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

W.114	2nd Officer	Marigold Deane-Drummond
	b. 13 Aug 1919, Upton-on-Severn, Worcs	1 May 1943 to May 1945

Father: Col. John 'Jack' Drummond Deane-Drummond DSO, OBE, MC, Mother: Marie Lily Anne [de Cuadra, b. 1883 in Madrid]

 Address in 1939: The Old Vicarage, Little Barrington, Oxford

[Her elder brother Anthony also learnt to fly in 1939, and wrote, in his 1992 autobiography 'Arrows of Fortune': "My mother had to divorce my father in 1926... This was not the end of my father's amorous adventures and, at the time I was married in 1944, my wife had the dubious distinction of having no less than three living mothers-in-law"

  RAeC 1939

He escaped from German captivity three times in WWII:  - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Deane-Drummond]

m. 15 Apr 1944 in Cirencester, George Rowland MBE,  of the Royal Corps of Signals

In Jul 1949, the Western Daily Press reported that "The heavy rain on Saturday played havoc with the final day's programme of the R.A.F. Week on Durdham Down, but it did not prevent Vampires of 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron from carrying out their fly-past. When they returned to Filton. however, the pilots discovered that, due to the high speed at which they had been flying, the rain had washed the crests and identification markings off the aircraft.

Other sufferers from the weather conditions were the five W. R. A. F. V. R. pilots, from No. 8 Reserve Flying School at Woodley, Reading, who were scheduled to fly formation over the exhibition 2.30 p.m. During the morning a squall  hit their airfield, damaged some of the aircraft and delayed their take-off. Ten minutes after their arrival Filton, however, the five Tiger Moths were airborne again, flying over Southmead towards .the Downs cloudburst, and at 2.30 exactly led by Miss Vera Strodl, they flew over the exhibition site. The other four pilots were Mrs Fay Bragg, Mrs Marigold Rowland, Miss Sheila Van Damm *, and Mrs Ann Kendall. All of them were, at one time A.T.A. pilots. "

 [* Sheila van Damm, motor rally driver in the 1950s, and sometime owner of the Windmill Theatre, wasn't an ATA pilot:

She only learnt to fly in 1947]

m. Jan 1955 in Chelsea, John M Saville

d. 1 May 2003 - Warwickshire

 née Edmonds

Father: Major Courtenay Harold Wish Edmonds (a railway engineer; RN and Royal Engineers in WWI, Royal Engineers in WWII, d. 1953), mother [Austin] (m. 1914 in Exeter) of Wish House, Bickley, Kent 

Ed. Stratford House School, Bickley, Kent

prev. Instructor, Dunstable Gliding Club; Founding Member of Surrey Gliding Club

prev. exp 185 hrs on 'standard light types'

m. 1939 Flt-Lt (later Wing-Cmdr) A 'Graham' Douglas (3 daughters, marriage dissolved 1948)

Address in 1940: Staplehurst Farm, Salfords, Redhill, Surrey

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP

Two accidents, neither her fault:

- 23 Dec 1940, one wheel of her Queen Bee (the optionally-unmanned aircraft based on the Tiger Moth) sunk into a concealed hole, damaging the propeller

- 11 Mar 1941, another Queen Bee, an accident due to engine failure

Contract Suspended 19 Aug 1942, when she became pregnant

"After the war, in 1946, Ann restarted the Surrey Gliding Club at RAF Kenley, initially with five members – but no aircraft. Almost all the country’s gliders had been requisitioned by the RAF and had been broken up or rotten away in unsuitable storage conditions during the war.

Their first glider, a Weihe, was an ex-German requisition. In 1947 the club relocated to nearby Redhill airfield – it wouldn’t return to Kenley until 1985 as the Surrey Hills Gliding Club which still flies from the airfield.

Ann worked hard to re-establish the British Gliding Association, resigning as its vice chairman in 1976. She managed the British Team at the World Gliding Championships between 1948 and 1968. She presided over the formation of the British Hang-Gliding Association in 1974 and was president of the British Microlight Association. She was also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and in 1997 was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Awarded an MBE and OBE for services to gliding, Ann Welch was an amazing all-rounder. A mother of three girls, she was a pilot, an instructor, a flying competition organiser, national administrator, author, painter, skier and one of Kenley’s famous faces." - https://www.kenleyrevival.org/content/history/local-lives/ann-welch-aviatrix-extraordinaire

 m. 1953 in Surrey,

   1947

Patrick Palles 'Lorne' Elphinstone Welch (who played a major part in designing the famous two-seater glider secretly constructed in the attic of Colditz Castle PoW Camp. d. 1998):

 © RAeC [0517-0226]

Receiving the Royal Aero Club Silver Medal [from Lord Brabazon], for her service to the advancement of gliding, 26 Mar 1959

Wrote her autobiography, 'Happy to Fly' in 1983

d. 5 Dec 2002 - "the world's best-known glider pilot"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Welch

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

Father: Norman Duncan

2 sisters, Betty and Angela

Address in 1942: Wardes, Otham, nr Maidstone, Kent

Postings include: 5FPP, 12FPP

   1942

2 accidents, neither her fault:

- 15 Mar 1942, during the crash of Fairchild HM178 in which Graham Lever, Bridget Hilland Betty Sayer (qqv) were killed, Pamela was thrown from the aircraft and suffered burns

- 20 Dec 1942, a forced landing in Lysander L4755 following engine failure

m. 1942 in Maidstone, Kent, Captain Spencer Alexander Gollan ("the second son of the late Mr Spencer H Gollan, the famous all-round New Zealand sportsman", d. 1986)

later worked for Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) in North West Europe, 1945

IWM interview in 1987 - see https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009817

d. 6 Jan 2000 - Chichester

W.81	First Officer	Maureen Adele/Adel/Adela Chase Dunlop
-	b. 26 Oct 1920, Quimes, Buenos Aires	15 Apr 1942 to 30 Nov 1945

RAeC 1945

Yes, that picture, 1944

ATAM

Father: Eric Chase Dunlop, an Estate Manager; Mother Jessimin May [Williams]

Ed. 'privately'

Postings: 6FPP, 15FPP

Class 3 pilot

2 accidents, neither her fault:

- 21 May 1943, the starboard wing of her Seafire brushed the ground during take-off, due to rough ground and failure of the throttle friction device

- 10 Jan 1944, the starboard gun inspection panel of her Hurricane partially detached in flight.

m. 1955 "retired Romanian diplomat" Serban (Şerban) Victor de Popp

Moved to Diss, Norfolk, UK, breeding Arab horses

d 29 May 2012 - Norfolk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Dunlop_de_Popp

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.131 *	2nd Officer	Mrs Sylvia Isabel Edwards
	b. 6 May 1919, London	9 Aug-43 to Sep-45

née Namias

Father: Lea Namias, a textile merchant, mother Hilda

m. 1939 in London, Flt-Lt David Harold Edwards(from Vancouver BC, of 144 Sqn, Bomber Command, RAF. d. 21 Jul 1940 when his Hampden was hit by flak and ditched in the North Sea during a minelaying operation against the Tirpitz and Von Scheer)

Address in 1939: 27 Woodfield Ave, Streatham

 prev. an ambulance driver for the LCC

ab initio trainee

Address in Oct 1945: 1 Hugo House, Sloane St., London SW1

exp: 185.15 hrs as ferry pilot

 Gained her RAeC 'A' Certificate No 20611 as part of the ATA 'Wings' scheme on 3 Oct 1945

m. 1945 in Westminster, Flt-Lt Richard Anson Freshwater, who had been a PoW in Stalag Luft III / Milag-Marlag Nord-Oflag L from 28 Aug 1942 after his Beaufighter was shot down

They moved to 9 Pasture Lane, Hathern, Loughborough, Leics, where Sylvia was the Unit Commander for the Junior Air Corps formed in 1955:

"Air-minded girls rolled up at the YWCA, Loughborough, last night to enrol in the newly-formed Junior Air Corps. The first recruit, Miss Ivy Whelden, signs on the dotted line for unit commander Mrs Sylvia Freshwater"

but they later emigrated to New Zealand, living at 51 Toroa St, Aukland.

W.156	3rd Officer	Mrs Yvonne Margaret 'Peggy' Eveleigh
	b. 18 Aug 1917, London	21 Feb-44 to Sep-45

ATA

RAeC 1945

née Lucas

Father: Lieut. Albert James Lucas, R.F.C., (killed whilst flying in France in May 1917), mother Violet Cordelia [Chauncy] (m. 1932 Douglas G Shrubshall)

m.1939 in Surrey, Derek Ernest Eveleigh, who d. 22 Apr 1940 in the crash of BOAC's Lockheed 14 G-AFKD at Binn Uird, near Loch Lomond, Dunbarton, en route from Perth to Heston

 Postings: 5TFP, 2FPP

exp. in ATA: 178.35 hrs

 3 accidents, one her fault:

- 14 Feb 1945, the starboard tyre of her Spitfire IX MA639 burst while taxying, and the aircraft swung off the perimeter track and nosed over

- 20 Aug 1945, a forced landing in Oxford II T1258 after engine vibration caused by a bent propeller tip

- 3 Sep 1945, she failed to control the landing swing of Spitfire III SP196, damaging the starboard wing tip

Gained her RAeC 'A' Certificate No 20527 as part of the ATA 'Wings' scheme on 31 Aug 1945

 Address in 1945: King's Arms, Tedburn St Mary, nr Exeter, Devon

m. Oct 1946 in Aylesbury, Roger G Grace

m. Oct 1952 in Westminster, Maj. Charles E Kaiser

m. Edouard Stamfer

All three post-war marriages ended in divorce.

Wrote 'WAAF with Wings' in 1992:

"A very good book published in 1992 by Y M Lucas (Peggy) called ’WAAF with Wings’ tells the story of the ATA with contributions from the girls themselves. In it Peggy describes delivering a repaired Martinet to St Eval for target towing and collecting a damaged Spitfire from there to deliver to a Maintenance Unit.

Peggy Lucas continued flying and at age 84 qualified as a helicopter pilot!

 1993

Frankie Horsburgh, a Canadian, located 16 out of the 17 [ex-WAAF ATA pilots] for their first reunion."

- http://www.olivehouserock.co.uk/link/144/index_files/Page549.htm

d. 8 Jan 2008 - buried St Nicholas Church in Remenham, Berkshire.

She reverted to 'Eveleigh' as her surname:

see http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/war/stfrideswide/lucas.html

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.141	First Officer	Mrs Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp
	b. 20 or 22 Jul 1907, Carolina, SA	7 Feb-44 to 31 Oct 1945

ATAM

ATAM

née Everard

father: Charles Joseph Everard, mother Amy Bertha [King] of Bonnefoi, E Transvaal, S Africa

Ed. Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris; St George's co-Ed School; Witwatersrand Technical College School of Aeronautics

S.A.W.A.A.F. Aug 1940 - Jan 1942

prev. exp: 2,000 hrs

"She was elected a 'beauty queen' in a South African competition just before the war"

prev. Instructor for WTC School of Aeronautics, Johannesburg

m. 1940 Nicolaas Fourie Steenkamp  (d. 1 Dec 1942 of fever, in Durban)

 Postings: 6FPP

2 accidents, neither her fault:

- 30 Mar 1944, when the engine of her Magister backfired and the propeller kicked back, injuring the engineer's hand

- 31 Dec 1944, she had to leave the perimiter track to avoid an oncoming aircraft in her Spitfire IX, and the aircraft tipped onto its nose.

"She has worked hard and been most willing to accept instruction... This lady is an asset to the Unit"

The first woman in Britain to fly a jet aircraft (3 Aug 1945 at Molesworth, in Meteor III EE313)

d. Mar 1946 in Spitfire XIV NH695 which crashed at Button Oak, Pound Green, near Upper Arley, Worcs, after engine failure.

She had continued ferrying after leaving the ATA, for 1FPP RAF.

 Her Logbook is in the South African Air Force Museum, Swartkop.

 Buried Maidenhead Cemetery:

 "Great-hearted Greatly loved. Death hath no more dominion over her"

"Rosamund painted landscapes and still life in oils. Her style of painting was unconventional, spontaneous and exuberant and her work reflects her attraction to decorative patterns and design. Her use of colour was strong, defined and controlled by definite rhythmic outlines. She was not as prolific as the other painters in her family. Her work formed part of the Everard Group exhibitions of 1931 and 1935 and featured in the retrospective exhibitions held at the Tatham Art Gallery in 1982 and the Standard Bank sponsored exhibition of 2000 entitled 'The Everard Phenomenon'.

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1931

4-engine (Class 5) pilot

Mrs King-Farlow from 1925 to 1936;

Mrs Fairweather from 1938.

The eldest daughter of Lord Walter and Lady Hilda Runciman.

Her brother Walter (co-Director, with Connie Leathart (q.v.), of Cramlington Aircraft, First Director-General of BOAC, Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, OBE, etc, etc) became the 2nd Viscount Runciman of Doxford, and her sister Katherine ('Kitty') was adjutant for the Women's Section of the ATA from March 1941.

I sometimes feel that Margie gets a bad press; she was, apparently, quiet and rather withdrawn, (nicknamed 'Mrs Cold Front') and, in photos, always seems to have that far-away look in her (green, btw) eyes. But, her ability, and her devotion to duty and to her friends, were never in doubt.

She got her RAeC certificate in 1937. In fact, she acquired her first aeroplane from her brother Walter; a 1931-reg D.H. Puss Moth G-ABLG, which he had flown in two King's Cup races.

She had married Roderick Nettleton King-Farlow in July 1925. Their daughter Ann was born in 1931, but they divorced in 1936, and she then married Douglas Keith Fairweather in March 1938. He was a businessman from Glasgow, and her complete opposite - outgoing, irreverent, and very eccentric. 

Margie then sold her aeroplane, and she and Douglas re-registered his Puss Moth G-ABYP in their joint names. Later they also bought a Leopard Moth, G-ACXH.

She had a horrible experience in 1939 when her friend, Dr. Elizabeth Cook, was killed by walking into the propeller of the aeroplane Margaret was about to pilot; they were going to fly to Paris for a holiday, and the plane was standing with the engine ticking over.

 FAI 1939

So, prior to WWII she was one of the most experienced women pilots in the country, with 1,050 hours of civilian flying, and (from late 1937) was an instructor with the Scottish Flying Club. She had flown Miles Whitney Straights, D.H. Moths, Puss Moths, Tiger Moths, Fox Moths, Leopard Moths, Hornet Moths, Dart Kitten, Taylor Cub, Potez, and Percival Vega Gull, in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France Switzerland and Austria.

Not surprisingly then, she was one of the 'First Eight' Women ATA pilots at Hatfield, starting in January 1940. Her training went well: "The handling characteristics of the Service trainer were entirely novel to Mrs. Fairweather, but having once mastered the take-off, she had no further difficulty, and is now able to fly both Master and Oxford satisfactorily. Her cockpit drill is excellent'"

Douglas also joined the ATA as a pilot. He was devoted to Margie; as Lettice Curtis says in Forgotten Pilots: he was once heard to say, "I love Margie, better than any dog I  ever had," and then more thoughtfully, "or even a pig or a cat."

 [For more about Douglas, I can recommend 'Brief Glory - the Story of the ATA']

On the 3rd March 1941 she was one of the four women especially praised by Pauline Gower: "The following pilots during the past year have been outstanding from the point of view of hard work and have set an example to others:- Mrs M Wilberforce [exceptional devotion to duty], Miss M Cunnison [great devotion to duty], Hon Mrs M Fairweather [has shown great devotion to duty, and worked hard and conscientiously as a taxi pilot], and Miss J Hughes [has shown devotion to duty]."

[Mona Friedlander, Rosemary Rees, Lois Butler, Gabrielle Patterson and Winifred Crossley also get a mention [they have 'worked hard and conscientiously'], and Pauline added that "had Miss Amy Johnson still been with us [she had died on the 5th January], her name would have been particularly mentioned".]

 In May 1941 Margie requested extra leave:

"Dear Commander Whitehurst,

As you know I have a daughter of twelve years of age. She is at boarding school during the term time, but for half of the period of each holidays I am responsible for her care. With the assistance of my family I have managed up to now fairly well without interfering with my work, but I now, owing to reasons of health and occupation I can no longer count on this help and paid help is almost impossible to come by.

In these circumstances I am writing to enquire whether ATA would consider granting me an extra week's leave in the summer, and a fortnight's extra leave at both Xmas and Easter, it being understood that any leave so granted would be without pay."

The request was granted, and Margie and Douglas took Ann for a holiday in a small farmhouse in Western Scotland [where they acquired a baby goat, which Douglas later took with him on at least one ferry flight.]

She and Douglas were both posted to Prestwick (4b Ferry Pool, Northern Area) in November 1941.

On the 14th December, she wrote to Pauline Gower:

"Sunday,

Dear Pauline,

I was hampered in talking to you the other day by the crowd around the telephone, amongst which were persons about whom I wanted to speak.

I am not sure we can make good use of the lady in question at this moment. We need a second ground person in this office but he or she must, as well as doing adjutant duties, be a good shorthand typist. Unless we combine the jobs there isn't sufficient to do. The lady's counterpart is doing 'ops' just now with only moderate success. It would be a pity to get her up here if that falls through. She is too 'choosy' for our mixed bag of aeroplanes to come only as a pilot. I am sorry we raised her hopes so high. Perhaps in a week or two the matter might be reconsidered if you have no other plans in view for her.

I have at last caught a Wellington for myself. I flew it with great pleasure from Prestwick to Sherburne today and am now here on my way back with a Hurricane. I found it very like a big Anson, & I can see no reason why any of the normally hefty of us should find them too heavy. It was tough today & at slow speeds as when coming in to land you have to heave and push but forewarned there is no difficulty. I wonder who of the others have had one and what they think.

We have had a tragedy already in no. 4b FPP. A charming American called Wiley who was posted to us left Speke on Wednesday afternoon & has not been heard of since. It is strange (or perhaps just a matter of psychology) how it always seems to be the nice ones that go and the toughs who remain.

Living in the … hotel as we are doing amongst all the over-night ATA one gets a bit of a … about humanity. I was almost pleased to see Mary H[unter], & Veronica [Volkersz] yesterday by contrast! Douglas is in his element entertaining his visiting pilots; clearly our post war job must be public house proprietors with Douglas as 'mine host'.

Please make Kitty write to me again soon. I loved getting your letters. When are you coming to inspect me? I wish you would.

I would love to have a talk. Are you likely to be at W[hite] W[altham] without warning if I cadge an aeroplane to that point?

with love, Margie."

She was promoted to Flight Captain in February 1942, in charge of the Women's Flight at Prestwick. Her Commanding Officer said that she was a "very reliable and steady ferry pilot... she has been a very real help to me." Shortly after that, she had her spat with Irene Arckless (q.v.)

 She also had an 'incident' on the 24th March 1943 - flying a Halifax (she was one of only 11 women cleared for 4-engine aircraft), the bolts securing an engine cowling broke away and fouled a propeller. Luckily, she was uninjured.

However, she was in big trouble in May 1943 - some Flight Captain or other (I can't make out the signature) wrote to Pauline:

"It is observed that F/Capt Mrs Fairweather is not complying with Standing Orders re. her hair. Also, this pilot still persists in wearing grey coloured stockings, whereas black is the order. Will you please be good enough to point out to this pilot that the Commanding Officer's Instructions in regard to 'Dress Regulations' must be complied with."

There is a scribbled note "Is anything ever done?", but, indeed, no sign of anything else happening...

 And then, on the 14th September 1943, (so, when Margie was nearly 42), and rather out of the blue , came this:

"Flight Captain Mrs Fairweather is pregnant and I recommend that her contract is terminated with three months' pay in lieu of notice."

[The ATA policy was that women who became pregnant would have their contracts terminated, to give them 3 months salary. However, Pauline soon discovered that Margie was "not interested in the financial aspect, but would rather have her contract suspended" and added,"I think we might well meet her wishes in this case."]

So, her contract was suspended, and she duly returned back to work on the 15th June 1944. By then, sadly, Douglas was dead; he and ATA Nurse Kathleen Kershaw had crashed in the Irish Sea, on a mercy flight to Prestwick. Douglas and Margie's daughter Elizabeth was born a few days after his death.

And then Margie herself died in another crash soon after, on the 4th August 1944. It happened on a communications flight in Percival Proctor III LZ801; the engine 'faded out', she force-landed in a field near Wrexham, but hadn't seen a ditch at the end of it. The aircraft went nose first into the ditch.

She, and her sister Kitty suffering from severe fractures to her right leg, were taken to Chester Royal Infirmary. Margie had serious head injuries; the third person on board, Lewis Kendrick, had minor abrasions. Margie died at 11 p.m., without regaining consciousness.

The technical investigation showed that the vent pipe of the port fuel tank was completely blocked by a film of dope, causing the tank to collapse. "In these circumstances the petrol gauge is likely to have indicated that the tank still contained fuel, when in fact it was dry."

Blame was heaped on everyone involved in ensuring the aircraft had been fit to fly: The Chief Engineer, and the Engineers in Charge at White Waltham, for failing to ensure that it had been serviced properly;  the Officer-in-Charge Air Movements Bay; the Engineering Inspector, for failing to ensure that the fitters were competent, and the two fitters who failed to notice the blocked vent.

The report recommended that procedures were changed, and Proctors modified, to prevent it happening again.

The cause of death was 'extensive skull fracture'; I've not come across any reference to Margie's spectacles shattering and contributing to her death, although this has been suggested recently.

She is buried, together with Douglas, in Dunure Cemetery, South Ayrshire. Near Prestwick.

 http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/

28th August 1944

Dear Mr d'Erlanger,

You will I hope forgive me for being slow to thank you for your kind letter & for what you say of Margaret's work, and I would like especially to thank you for all the kindness and consideration shown to my daughter Ruth & for all the arrangements made for the funeral which we could not have wished otherwise. I would be grateful if you could also pass on our thanks to whoever in the RAF was responsible for allowing her to lie in that little war cemetery beside Douglas. We very greatly valued the kindness that prompted that decision.

I am afraid it will be a long time before Kitty is up & about, but we are glad to have no real anxiety about her.

Hilda Runciman

Margie's loss was "a great blow to ATA, for she was not only one of our best women pilots, but in her modest and enthusiastic manner set an almost unequalled example of unselfish devotion to duty."

Oxford DNB : "Fairweather [née Runciman], Margaret (1901–1944), airwoman, was born at West Denton Hall, near Newcastle upon Tyne, on 23 September 1901, the second in a family of two sons and three daughters of Walter Runciman, first Viscount Runciman (1870–1949), and his wife, Hilda Stevenson (1869–1956) [see Runciman, Hilda]. Margie, as she was always known, was educated initially at home together with her younger brother Steven (later Sir Steven Runciman) by a governess who taught them Greek and Latin at an early age. She then attended a number of educational institutions including The Mount, a Quaker school in York, and Notting Hill high school, from where she went to Girton College, Cambridge. After a year she dropped out of Girton to study singing in Paris, though she never performed professionally. She married Roderick Sydney Nettleton King-Farlow (1900–1988), the son of Sir Sydney Charles Nettleton King-Farlow, at St Margaret's, Westminster, on 15 July 1925. A daughter was born in 1931. The marriage ended in divorce in 1936.

In the autumn of 1936 Margie learned to fly at Newcastle Aero Club and was issued with her aviator's certificate (licence no. 14687) by the Royal Aero Club on 13 January 1937. She was planning to fly solo to Australia but changed her mind when she met a fellow pilot, Douglas Keith Fairweather (1891–1944), son of Sir Walter Fairweather. They were married on 28 March 1938. In that year Lord Runciman was sent on the ill-fated mission to Prague to mediate between the German and Czech governments. Fairweather flew out herself to visit him. During a European tour that same year she and Douglas, under the guise of tourists, photographed unrecorded German airfields. She also sent back letters to her brother Steven which seemingly contained only trivial domestic details. On her return, however, she decoded these to recover intelligence data.

With the threat of war looming, in October 1938 the Civil Air Guard scheme was inaugurated to provide subsidized training of pilots through the civil flying clubs. As experienced pilots, Margie and her husband became instructors at Renfrew. Douglas Fairweather was one of the first to sign contracts with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for service with the AirTransportAuxiliary (ATA) in September 1939.

Many women, qualified flying instructors with considerable flying experience, volunteered to serve with the ATA. However, the pilots enrolled by BOAC under the ATA scheme were employed in RAF ferry pilots' pools and the RAF would not agree to the employment of women in their ferry pools. This problem was solved in December 1939 when Pauline Gower (who became commandant of the women's ATA) was informed that a small pool of eight women based at Hatfield could be formed to ferry Tiger Moths to stored reserves.

With over 1000 flying hours, Margaret Fairweather was one of that select band who signed contracts with the ATA on 1 January 1940. This departure from tradition caused a furore in a world in which professional women were still a novelty. Press and newsreel gave full publicity to the event and the so-called ‘ATA girls’ were under constant scrutiny. However, ferrying Tiger Moths from Hatfield to storage reserves, some as far away as Kinloss, Perth, and Lossiemouth, and returning by overnight train, often with no sleeper in midwinter, was not the glamorous occupation some imagined. In July 1941 ATA women pilots were cleared to fly operational aircraft and Margaret Fairweather was one of the first four chosen to do practice landings in a Hurricane. These four carried a burden of responsibility as the future of all women pilots in the ATA depended on them.

Meanwhile Douglas Fairweather was joint commanding officer at Prestwick. In 1942 he was posted to no. 1 ferry pool, White Waltham, to take charge of the air movements flight. Margie was then posted to join him. For the rest of her time there she was engaged in communication duties and it was on one such assignment that she met her death—the only one not to survive among the original eight who served from the very beginning.

Gradually more operational types of plane were being flown by women and the progression was made from single engine to twin aircraft to advanced twin, and eventually eleven women pilots were qualified to fly four-engined aircraft. Fairweather was one of the eleven. She was considered by her fellow pilots to be one of the most intelligent and able, though rather quiet and self-effacing. In fact, according to her daughter, her nickname was Mrs Cold Front.

On 3 April 1944 Douglas Fairweather volunteered to go to Prestwick to collect an ambulance case requiring special treatment. In appalling weather, somewhere over the Irish Sea, the Anson came down and both he and the nurse travelling with him were lost. Margie gave birth to their daughter Elizabeth a few days later. Margie returned to flying only to be killed herself four months later. She was piloting a Proctor to Scotland on 4 August 1944 with two passengers on board when the engine failed near Malpas, Cheshire. All three were taken to Chester Royal Infirmary where Fairweather died soon afterwards. Her passengers were her sister, the Hon. Kitty Farrer, adjutant of the ATA, and Louis Kendrick of the Ministry of Aircraft Production. They recovered, escaping with injuries. Douglas Fairweather's body was washed up on the Ayrshire coast. Margaret Fairweather and he were both buried in the small churchyard of Dunure, Ayrshire." 

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.38	Flight Captain	Hon. Mrs Lucy Agnes Vera Falkiner
	b. 1 Jan 1905, Stanford	1 Apr 1941 to 31 Dec 1945

1935 (by Bassano)

RAeC 1938

née Verney Cave

Father: Adrian Verney Verney-Cave, Lord Braye, Mother: Ethel Mary [Bouverie-Pusey], of Stanford Hall, Swinford, Rugby

Ed. Convent, St Leonards on Sea

 1929

"The Hon Lucy Verney Cave as Miss Neville in Goldsmith's comedy 'She Stoops to Conquer' performed by Girl Guides in the Church Hall in Lutterworth. They gave a very entertaining performance of thes delightful old play"

 with her brother, the Hon. Thomas Adrian, at the 'Lincoln Stuff Ball' in 1930

[one of many many balls, dances, society weddings, etc, etc that she attended]

m. 1935 in Bosworth, Lucien Leslie Falkiner "of the 43rd Light Infantry... both families are well-known in the Midlands and they are slightly related"

 Ancestry

 Capt. Falkiner d. 30 May 1940 in France

prev: WAAF from 23 Nov 1940; Assistant Section Officer, based at Wittering, Northants

prev exp: 14 hrs on Avro Cadet, Tiger Moth, Hornet Moth

 Postings: 5FPP, 12FPP, 9FPP, 1FPP

Off sick from 6 Oct 1942 to 30 Mar 1943 with 'nervous overstrain'

7 accidents, 2 her fault:

- 29 Mar 1942, flying Master I N7552, she found it difficult to select 'Flaps Up' and accidentally released the hood

- 14 Apr 1942, she couldn't get the flaps or undercarriage to lock down in a Hurricane

- 7 Jul 1942, the propeller of her Master I N7482 was discovered to be bent after she parked it, cause unknown

- 4 Jul 1943, she landed Master II EM329 with complete engine failure, due to the servicing cock under the port fuel tank being turned off

- 14 Jul 1943, she failed to control the landing swing of Hudson III FH373 and damaged the port wing

- 10 Nov 1943, the hood blew off her Spitfire VIII JG379 on take-off when she tried to close it, damaging the tailplane

 - 15 Jun 1945, forced landing in Mosquito XXX MV527 after a serious oil leak in the port engine

"A good, very steady and extremely careful pilot, who has an excellent influence on the junior pilots"

d. Mar 1980 - Cirencester

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1935

ATA

 née Schlesinger

Father: Cesar Schlesinger, from "a region of Germany which is now part of Poland"

Ed. Roedean

changed name by deed poll (to name of step-father George Herbert, who brought her up from 1904) New

m. 1922 in Chelsea, Ronald H Boswell, a Publisher (Messrs John Lane, Bodley Head)

She and Ronald travelled to Argentina together in 1927, and to South Africa the following year.

She listed her profession as "Author"; she had published books called 'Posterity - A Novel' in 1926, and 'Bull among China' in 1928.

m. 1929 in Paddington, Robin George Westbury Farnell (of Farnell Carbons Ltd, Plumstead, London SE. The son of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. His first wife Dorothy [Coode] d. 1926)

3 children (David (Boswell) b. 1923, Martin (Boswell) b. 1926, Michael (Farnell) b. 1928)

Address in 1935-1940: Idleigh Court, Meopham, Kent

In 1940 she said she lost contact with her father "about 15 years ago - now dead" [Cesar "spent the last 20 years of his life equally shared 6 months at a time between South Africa and the UK"]

3 accidents, 2 her fault:

- 22 Feb 1941, when she misjudged an approach in her Puss Moth;

- 11 Dec 1941, her Wicko nosed over after misuse of brakes while landing

- 22 Feb 1942, the engine of her Magister backfired when the airscrew was being swung.

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 Images via Nicholas Farnell

 d. 14 Apr 1995 - Sedbury, Tidenham, Glos

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.159	3rd Officer	Miss Marjorie 'June' Farquhar
	b. 28 Jul 1921, London	21 Feb-44 to Sep-45

RAeC 1945

(r) with Edith Beaumont

Rather: Capt. Arthur Farquhar, of Town Farm, Aldbury, nr Tring, Herts

Ed. "Private and Finishing Schools", Francis Holland (London) and Chateau Mont Choisi, Lausanne

  With the Hertfordshire Hunt in 1940

prev: VAD,; from Oct 1941 WAAF

(c) with Edith Beaumont and Lettice Curtis

One accident: 

- 26 Aug 1944, she was commended for a forced landing in Magister L8054 after engine failure

Gained her RAeC 'A' Certificate No 20491 as part of the ATA 'Wings' scheme on 3 Aug 1945

 Address in 1945: 49 Milverton Rd, London NW1

 Mrs Cole from 1946, as reported by the Bucks Herald on 14 June;

"MARRIAGE OF MAJOR C. B. COLE AND MISS M. J. FARQUHAR

The wedding took place between Major Charles Brian Cole and Miss Marjorie June Farquhar at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Aldbury, on Friday.

The bride, younger daughter of Captain and Mrs Farquhar, of Town Farm, Aldbury, was given away by her father. The reception was held at “Hawkwell”, a Tring residence owned by the bride’s parents, and which is at present largely occupied by farm workers of the H.W.A.C. About 275 guests were present, and refreshments were served under a marquee, set up on the lawns of the house, the sunshine on the day making possible the use of the lovely garden. After the cake was cut, the health of the bride and groom was proposed by Mr. E. J. Gilbert, an old friend of the family. The best man, Capt. Michael Charlesworth, R.A., answered the bridegroom’s toast on behalf of the bridesmaids.

Major and Mrs. Brian Cole later left by car for Marlow, where they spent the week end at the hotel where they first privately celebrated their engagement, five-and-a-half years ago.

On returning from their honeymoon, they will live in London, at least until the bridegroom leaves the War Office, where he is at present employed.

During the war the bride was in the W.A.A.F., doing radar work, but, later, became one of the twelve out of five thousand successful volunteer applicants for A.T.A. [I wonder where they got that from?]

As a ferry pilot she flew all types of fighter and torpedo planes all over the British Isles. Her father and mother, both Canadians, liked and stayed in England after the Great War, in which Capt. Farquhar served in the R.F.C. They first came to Ivinghoe 18 years ago for weekend riding, and it was then that Capt. Farquhar became known as the 'fairy godfather' for the pennies he distributed to the children who presented themselves with clean faces. He came to live in Aldbury about 10 years ago.

The bridegroom, third son of the late Mr. Charles Phillips Cole and Mrs. Cole, of Tring, was studying architecture with his father at the Berkhamsted office of Messrs, W. Brown and Co. when war broke out. He was then embodied with the Hertfordshire Regiment, and in 1941 he went to India, where, after attending Staff College, he served on the staff of an Indian Beach Group. He was mentioned in despatches, and at the cessation of hostilities with Japan was a Lt.-Col. on the Q. Staff of the 14th Army.

It will be remembered that in April, 1945, the elder sister of the bride was married at Tring to the oldest brother of the bridegroom, Mr. Richard Cole."

At an ATA Reunion c.2011

d. 13 Sep 2017

Her son kindly tells me that  "Whilst serving in the WAAF she was engaged then on secret work with radar, directing allied aircraft to targets deep in Germany. She always chuckled about leaving the WAAF to join the ATA. Apparently the only reason to be allowed to opt out was due to pregnancy, but my mother managed to wangle it (without pregnancy!) to join the ATA. I think her father's contacts helped pull strings, as he had been a Royal Naval Air Service Captain in the Great War.

 I have been looking at her Pilot Log Book, and give a summary of her flying service below. For the record it was signed off by EP Lane, Flt?Captain and Adjutant of No 1 Ferry Pool ATA.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.65	First Officer	Virginia 'Ginny' or 'Ginna' Farr
	b. 15 Nov 1918, Groton MA	10 Feb-42 to 5 Jun-45

1942

 Ed. Chatham Hall High School, VA

prev: Flight Instructor (Bennett Airport, NJ)

prev. exp. 300 hrs

She made a five-month tour of Europe with two friends between March and August 1939, and said afterwards that "in travelling through Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Holland [she] noticed that the residents 'scoff' at threats of war, go about their business as usual and believe themselves in no imminent danger."

 Address in 1942: 572 Prospect Ave, West Orange, NJ (grandmother's house)

 She met Eleanor Roosevelt in October 1942, who complimented her on her "trim appearance."

Off sick from 7 Oct to 3 Nov 1942 with influenza

Suspended for 1 day in July 1943 for turning and taxying down the runway in use.

 Vivien Jeffery in 1939

In 1979. "Virginia and her English friend and partner Vivien Jeffery, the [former ATA] Operations Officer, live on a ranch in California and raise cattle, Siberian Huskies and Welsh Corgis."

d. 1988

buried Holy Innocents Cemetery Essex County, NJ

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.157	3rd Officer	Diana Faunthorpe
	b. 2 Mar 1920, Beaminster, Dorset	21 Feb-44 to Sep-45

Mother: Alice Overton [Wills], Father Bertram Platt Faunthorp (d. 1949)

Ed,. Prior's Field School, Guildford; in 1935 she was a member of the choir, the lacrosse team ("Faunthorpe is a useful member of the team as she can play defence or attack, but must try to gain more speed") and the tennis team, and competed in the high jump and the hurdle race.

Address in 1938: Greystones, Enton Green, Godalming, Surrey

Sailed, with her mother, to Montevideo, Uruguay in Aug-Dec 1938

prev. a WAAF plotter, RAF Fighter Command

 "Of the fifteen different aircraft types she ferried for the ATA (the Spitfire was her favourite) she received instruction on only four." The Times, 2010

Address in 1947: Bramshott Cottage, Wilmer Lane, Liphook, Surrey

Sailed to Kenya in September 1947, intending to settle there and giving her profession as a 'Child's Nurse'.

She then met and married Henry James Hamilton 'Jim' Home, a psychoanalyst based in the Sudan, and they returned to the UK together in 1950. (Marriage dissolved), 3 children [1 son, Jennifer, and Jessica].

Retired to Totners, Devon where she "painted and learnt glass engraving".

d. 27 Mar 2010 (age 90)

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.152	3rd Officer	Joyce Ann Fenwick
	b. 3 Mar 1918, Southampton	21 Feb 1944 to Apr 1945

ATA

WwW

 Mother: [Donald], from Edinburgh

Prev. WAAF from Jun 1942, stationed at RAF Ailton

Ab initio pilot

Postings: 7FPP

m. Sep 1944 John de Winton 'Johnnie' Tharp, also of the ATA.

"Flying Romance

There was a wedding in Old Bosham Church on Tuesday, which was the culmination of a war time flying romance, when Third Officer John Tharp, of the A.T.A., married Cadet Joyce Fenwick, also of the A.T.A. They are both pilots and ferry aircraft.

John Tharp is the second son of Mr. Charles Tharp, the well-known portrait painter, who has made his home in Old Bosham since the war, and whose beautiful picutres, portraits and landscapes are hanging in the Anchor Inn. Charles Tharp was at The Slade School of Art with Sir William Orpen and Augustus John, and has had many pictures hung in the Royal Academy. 

John Tharp was in the First Parachute Battalion formed in the early days of the war, but injured his back doing a jump, and was invalided out. Later he joined the A.T.A. 

The bride was given away by Third Officer John Gilbert, A.T.A. pilot, and her sister Marjorie Fenwick, was bridesmaid. The best man was Hugh Stewart, B.B.C. producer. The Rev. A. L. Chatficld officiated. Mrs. Turvey. the bridegroom’s sister, made the wedding cake, and decorated the church with the help of Third Officer (Mrs.) Bannister, another A.T.A. pilot. A delicious tea for 30 people was provided by Mrs. Leather at The Grange. Mr. Graham Tharp, who is a film producer for M.o.I., did a lot of work as M.C., and Mrs. Diana Britton did “billeting officer,” finding bed and accommodation for numerous guests, not an easy thing to do these days. After spending a night in Bosham, the happy couple left for the Scilly Isles to spend their honeymoon. " - Chichester Observer - Saturday 16 September 1944

 2 accidents, one her fault:

- 2 Dec 1944, a heavy landing in Spitfire V X4280, breaking the port undercarriage and wing

- 24 Feb 1945, her Argus I EV803 was hit whilst taxying, by Ida van Zenten in Argus FK337

 "She left ATA in April 1945, owing to a rather unexpected pregnancy that was only discovered when she went to the sick bay complaining of nausea" - WAAF with Wings

They moved to Kenya, but John appears to have died in an air accident in Tanganyika, 20 Jul 1951 - see Accident Avro Anson Mk I VP-KHT, 20 Jul 1951 (aviation-safety.net)

 Joyce and her daughter Gilian Carol, aged 8, sailed from Mozambique back to the UK in September 1954 to visit her mother in Edinburgh, then returned to Kenya, where they lived until they returned to the UK in 1962 before going to Fiji. 

m. c.1956 Maj. Kenneth Spicer Few (a lawyer who had been a PoW of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore, from Feb 1942 to 2 Sep 1945) (d. 1975)

They, together with daughter Sara (b. 21 Jun 1957), sailed to the UK from Kenya in Feb 1959, and back in Jun 1959, for four months. He is listed as a "Resident Magistrate"

d. 20 Dec 1973 - Cambridge

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.jpg):

W.113	2nd Officer	Irene Joy Ferguson
	b. 30 Oct 1915, Lurgan, Co. Armargh	1 May-43 to Oct-45

 prev: Electrical Showroom Attendant, then a Technical Civil Servant in the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP)

Address in 1943: Langham House, 89 Hide Rd, Harrow

 Postings include: 7FPP, 15FPP

2 accidents, neither her fault:

- 3 Nov 1943, forced landing after engine failure in Swordfish NE862,

- 12 Dec 1944, another forced landing, in Argus I LV804 after loss of elevator control

Mr Jonathan Ferguson from 1958

The Times, Saturday, Jan 11, 1958:

"FERGUSON - The register containing particulars of the birth of Irene Joy Ferguson, of Holden Rd, London, N.12, has been corrected to read 'male' instead of 'female' and 'Jonathan' instead of 'Irene Joy'. (Signed) Jonathan Ferguson."

and on Jan 13:

"Change of sex by woman pilot

Ministry Employee

Miss Irene Joy Ferguson, a wartime ferry pilot now employed by the Ministry of Supply, stated at the weekend that she had undergone a change of sex and would in future be known as Jonathan Ferguson. The register containing particulars of birth have been amended.

Mr. Ferguson, of Holden Rd, North Finchley, Middlesex, is aged 40. He joined the Ministry of Supply in 1941 and is a chief experimental officer employed on aircraft research and development. It is understood that the alteration to the birth certificate will not affect his employment in the Ministry.

From May 1943 to October 1945 he - as a woman - was a ferry pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary and held a commission for five years after the war in the W.R.A.F.V.R. (flying list).

Mr Ferguson flew about 1,000 hours as a ferry pilot and after the war became - still as a woman - adviser to the air section of the Girl Guides Association."

d 31 May 1974  - Bracknell, Berks

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.122	3rd Officer	Eleanor Dorothy 'Beanie' Fish
	b. 15 Oct 1917, Nottingham	1 Jun 1943 to 30 Sep 1945

Father: George Fish (a Master Butler); mother: Dorothy

Ed. Nottingham High School and RIBA, London

prev: Architect (Eberlin and Derbyshire Architects), then architectural assistant for the ATA from Jan 1942

Address in 1943: 14 Vivian Ave, Nottingham

Ab initio trainee

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP, 12FPP, 6FPP

2 accidents, 1 her fault:

- 2 Dec 1944, a forced landing in Argus I FK345 after engine failure

- 12 Dec 1944, flying Spitfire IX TA780, she was reprimanded when she "persisted in landing well up the runway, knowing there was another aircraft in front of her. She collided with this other aircraft and was held to blame by the Accidents Committee"

m. Sep 1945 in Nottingham, 3rd Officer (Flt-Eng) Bernard K Wadsworth, also of the ATA

  2019

d. 21 Dec 2020, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Dorothy Joyce Forbes
	b. 15 Nov 1915, Dundee	1 May to 29 Jul 1943

Father: Henry Nelmes Forbes, mother: Elsie Kathleen [Smith]

prev: Welfare Supervisor for British Industrial Plastics

prev exp: 3hrs

Address in 1939: 369 Hagley Rd, Edgebaston, Birmingham

1 Accident:

- 29 Jun 1943, a forced landing after engine failure in a Magister

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 d. 22 Mar 1967 - Edinburgh

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.76	First Officer	Suzanne 'Sue' Ford
	b. 2 Apr 1915, Morristown NJ	14 Apr-42 to Oct-45

nee Humphreys

Father: Landon Humphreys

Ed. Somerset Hills School, Far Hills NJ, and Westover School, Connecticut

At Westover, she was a member of the basketball, field hockey, track and high jumping teams and "is an excellent rifle shot. She is an expert horsewoman and has followed the Essex Fox Hounds regularly."

Learnt to fly in 1931 and entered the National Air Pageant in 1933, and All American Air Races in Jan 1934

m. 1936 Frederick Ward Ford from Morristown (divorced c.1947)

"Smiling happily, Mr and Mrs Frederick Ward Ford march down the aisle of the chapel of Somerset Hills School"

prev. exp. 400 hrs

Address in 1942: 2 East 8th St, New York

Travelled to Bristol from Halifax, NS on the SS Tetela with Grace Stevenson, Virginia Garst and Hazel Raines, arriving 11 May 1942.

m. 1948 Peter Rafael de Florez

Later headed her family's pharmaceutical business (The Humphreys Medicine Company, founded by her great-grandfather in 1853) in New York.

d. 25 Jul 2001 - Nyack, Rockland, NY

 The company still exists, as Humphreys Pharamacal, headquartered in Connecticut - see https://www.humphreysusa.com/

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1936 - Brooklands

ATA

1939 Bassano

Father: Ernest Friedlander (German, naturalised 1909 - "founder and chairman of the well-known banking firm of Singer and Friedlander"). Mother: Vera(na)

Educated 'abroad', (Vienna, Switzerland, Germany) and at the Royal School of Arts and the LSE in London (Commerce Examinations).

5 foot 5 inches tall; hair and eyes: dark brown. Religion: Hebrew (sic). 

Ken Waller taught her to fly

Her uncle, V. Mansfield, was a Colonel in the British Army in WWI.

 prev. pilot for Air Taxis, Croydon, giving "5 bob joy rides"

Mona was in the squad for the British Women's Ice Hockey teams who faced France in 1934 and 1935, but Britain lost the first and only drew the second. She was a defender, playing for her club the London Lambs; against France "probably the fastest skater on either side, and certainly the strongest".

  Playing for the 'Wembley Lionesses' in 1937 - Daily Mirror

In 1938, "Airwoman Mona Friedlander, who played left-back for England. was the most dashing player on the ice. Dressed in a short black split skirt and a blue and white jersey —the England uniform—she was all over the ice, leaving a trail of devastation in her wake. Her enthusiasm led her into trouble. She was sent off twice, but made up for it by scoring two of England's goals."

From 1st March 1939 to the end of November, she worked as an Army Cooperation pilot, flying in front of anti-aircraft batteries to help them with the aiming and ranging of guns and searchlights. The Sketch said "We take our hat off to Miss Mona Friedlander - for being an attractive night-flying target that no-one should miss"

  1940

She was then one of the 'First 8' women pilots of the ATA, joining on 1st January 1940 as a Second Officer. At the time, she had 600 hours experience, on 'most light types'.

Postings: Hatfield, 5FPP

She married Major Alan Forward, M.C. in June 1941; by then, she had had 3 accidents:

- 4 Oct 1940, she failed to get the undercarriage of Oxford V3325 down and locked before landing;

- 25 Mar 1941, she had a forced landing in Lysander P1727 when the engine failed, and

- 29 Apr 1941, another forced landing Hawker Hind 4643, during which she collided with a cow in the field, which ended up costing the ATA £150.

She was exonerated in all 3 accidents.

Her report says "First Officer Forward is a good pilot and a hard worker. She has been unfortunate in the matter of accidents but cannot be held responsible for those she has had. On one isolated occasion she showed bad airmanship - this has not been repeated" but added (rather strangely in view of her ice hockey-playing career before the war), "Physical endurance rather below average."

She was promoted to First Officer in May 1942, but in September hit a parked Anson when taxying a Hudson, then in October suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Typhoon, remained off sick until February 1943 and then resigned.

During her ATA career, Mona flew 32 types of aircraft up to 'Class 4' (Advanced Twin Engined), including 20hrs on Wellingtons and 10 hrs on Mosquitos. 

post-ATA, Censor for the Ministry of Information

Moved to Egypt. Flew one of a flight of 8 Fairchilds down to Johannesberg for £50.

d. 24 Dec 1993 - Yeovil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Friedlander

IWM interview here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009073

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.110	3rd Officer	Margaret Olive 'Maggie' Frost
	b. 26 Nov 1920, Kingston by Sea, Sussex	25 Nov 1942 to 30 Sep 1945

ATA

ATAM

Father:  Ernest Isaac Frost, a country parson; Mother, Olive Jessie [Thornton] 

(First solo 1 Aug 1939)

Address in 1942: The Rectory, Fulborough, Sussex

prev: from May 1941 WRNS, HMS Forward

 Postings: 15FPP

 Off sick from 21 Dec 1943 to 8 Mar 1944 due to an appendectomy

One accident, not her fault:

- 5 Aug 1945, three propeller blades of her Barracuda III RJ492 were found to be chipped, reason unknown

Maggie (far left) at the unveiling of the ATA Memorial in Hamble-le-Rice, 2010

 d. 4th August 2014 - Aberystwyth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Frost

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.63	First Officer	Rosemary Lilian Fuller-Hall
	b. 25 Jun 1919, Hampton Middx	2 Dec-41 to Jan-44

-- Not in 'Forgotten Pilots' or 'Brief Glory' --

Daughter of Charles Fuller-Hall.

prev exp: 30hrs

5' 7", slight build, fair hair, blue eyes 

Got her RAeC certificate in 1939, became a stenographer (which I think is a sort of shorthand typist, but I could be wrong) for the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company of Canada, and then was in the A.T.S. from September 1938 to February 1939.

She is mostly interesting for the number of accidents she had :-)

Here is the story of the ups  and downs  of her ATA career :-

- 3 May 1942: Completed Class 1 Training.  Promoted to 3rd Officer (from Cadet)

- 23 Aug 1942: Completed Class 2 Training. Promoted to 2nd Officer

- 6 Dec 1942:  Accident to Master I N8057 at Hullavington. "Whilst taxying, the a/c skidded off perimiter track into ditch due to the pilot taxying without sufficient care on muddy surface. Pilot IS held responsible."

 - 12 Dec 1942:  Accident to Fairchild EV774 at Hamble. "A/C overshot on landing and collided with fence due to gross error of judgement on part of pilot. Pilot is held responsible."

- 18 Dec 1942: Demoted to 3rd Offficer.

- 21 Dec 1942: Back to School. "A good average pilot whose flying is quite satisfactory. Her recent accidents have apparently little or no connection with her flying skill, but seem to be purely a question of carelessness. " [That's all right, then].

- 1 Feb 1943:  Promoted to 2nd Officer (again).

- 15 Mar 1943: Accident to Mustang I. "Tail wheel punctured & tyre fell off on take off. Pilot is not responsible for accident." [phew].

- 20 Apr 1943: Completed Class 3 Training. "A hard working pilot of average ability whose flying is quite sound but she must pay very particular attention to her airmanship."

- 30 Apr 1943:   Accident to Barracuda P9740. "After landing undercarriage retracted. Pilot selected U/C up instead of flaps. Pilot is to blame.

- 7 May 1943:  Suspended 3 days with total loss of pay and warned that "another accident, for which she is held responsible, will mean termination of contract."

- 13 Aug 1943: Promoted to 1st Officer. "A keen pilot and a well-behaved officer. Her accidents are entirely due to lack of concentration."

- 30 Sep 1943: Class 4 Training Completed. "Somewhat forgetful with cockpit drill which gives the impression of overconfidence. She should be given ample Class 4 ferrying before being considered for 4+. Average Ability."

In Dec 1943, she married Mr Peter Pennington-Legh and resigned from the ATA.

Total Hours ferrying: 459 hrs 15min.

She later moved to Australia, and died there in 1984.

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.71	First Officer	Dorothy Rita Furey
	b. 17 Dec 1918, New Orleans, LA	10 Feb-42 to 7 Jun-44

Her father was a banana importer who lost everything in the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Ed. 1yr Lousiana State University

prev. Flight Instructor

Address in 1942: 1424 Philip St, New Orleans, LA

"The southern beauty packed a scarlet ballgown with her flying gear and set off for England where she put both to good use. She met and married a Canadian airman and was widowed - all in quick succession" RAF Museum

Mrs Bragg - her husband, Pilot Officer Richard Edward Bragg, was killed 13 May 1943 hen his Halifax JB924 was shot down by a nght-fighter near the village of Wijnaldum, North Netherlands, killing 7 of the 8 crew (the 8th became a PoW). Richard and Dorothy had married in Nottinghamshire in June 1942.

[Actually, it appears that Richard was British, born in Nuthall, Nottinghamshire, and Dorothy met him on the boat from Canada.].(My thanks to Mark Alexander-Holmes for pointing this out.)

Dorothy (centre) with Jackie Sorour and Rosemary Rees with Spitfire IX, August 1942 - with thanks to Adam Hewitt

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP

5 accidents, 3 her fault:

- 24 Jun 1942, she taxied her Tiger Moth into another aircraft;

- 11 Sep 1942, she had to land her Hurricane with the undercarriage up after the selector lever stuck;

- 20 Dec 1942, she hit another stationary aircraft (a Spitfire Vc, being piloted by Mary Wilkins), while taxying, also in a Spitfire;

- 29 Jan 1943, she discovered her Spitfire's port flap had been damged by "surface water" after landing on a grass airfield (not her fault), and

- 27 Mar 1943, "Pilot adopted line of take-off which caused her to strike a fence, which was invisible to her from her starting point, but of which she was aware."

Her instructor Marcus Hale described her as  "a complex character, difficult to assess fairly in writing. She obviously is a capable pilot and at times appears to be really keen, but in everything else but the actual flying from A to B she is completely undisciplined and in some ways sheerly indolent."

"She proved a difficult pupil as she is inclined to be self willed and showed a bored attitude to the whole affair."

Later on, "A capable pilot whose discipline whilst on ferrying duties has improved."

Sailed to New York from Greenock in 1943, arriving 28th July, with fellow ATA pilots Virginia Farr, Ann Watson Wood, Grace Stevenson, John Yingst, Lionel Kay and Mary (Zerbel) Hooper. She then returned as supernumerary co-pilot in  Mitchell FV967, 15-21 Sep 1943.

 Off sick from 29 Dec 1943

m. 1946 David, Earl Beatty RN, son of Admiral Beatty of WWI Jutland fame, and thus became Countess Beatty. He was  "a good soldier but a poor politician, a man of short temper and a chronic husband", she said later.

While married to David, Dorothy had a long-standing affair with Anthony Eden, the future Prime Minister of Britain. 

m. 1954 Abram Hewitt, a millionaire American horse breeder (d. 1987)

She moved to Lexington, Kentucky, then in 1993 to Paris, Virginia.

m. 1998 in Warren, VA, (aged 80), Kent Miller (aged 58)

  1992

Her son Adam tells me that she called Kent her "Boy Toy, or as she put it, “My ticket to stay out of a nursing home.”

  2000 (The Times)

d. 9 Nov 2006 - Winchester, VA

Her son Adam told me: "It’s interesting to read the comments of her supervisor, Marcus Hale, which I had never seen before, describing her as a complex and difficult person. She came from a gothically dysfunctional family in New Orleans and I believe she was probably bipolar all her life - undiagnosed - for that goes with what we always saw, she was either slumped in a chair somewhere completely disinterested or a roaring ball of energy, going off on a whim to places like Uzbekistan or Indonesia in her 80s!"

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Mrs Edith Elizabeth 'Marie' Furkert
	b. 20 Dec 1913, Wellington, NZ	30 Aug-43 to 26 Jan-44

née Power-Collins

Father: Joseph

ED. Wellington East Girls College

 NZ 'A' Licence 1933

 Aukland Museum

m. 1935 Sqn Ldr Bruce R Furkert, RNZAD

prev: Office Assistant in the Air Dept, Wellington NZ

Address in 1943: 25 Coram St, London WC1

  [Contract Terminated by ATA]

later Mrs Rogers

d. 12 Aug 1987

Buried Feilding Cemetery, Manawatu District, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.151	3rd Officer	Sheila A Garrett
-	b. 18 Nov 1916, Marionville, Missouri, USA	3 Apr-44 to Jun-45

 a.k.a. Sheila Browning

Father: Albert Alvin Garrett

Next of Kin: Lt. Mrs. Lee G Morse (sister, aka Lynn Browning); 8500 Holloway Dr, Hollywood, CA

 Far right, representing "Missouri" in 1935

She appears as an uncredited extra in the 1936 movie "The Great Ziegfield" (This appears to be her only pre-WWII acting job; however, her sister Lynn Browning was signed to Warner Bros. and appeared in 11 movies between 1932 and 1940, until her career was cut short by a car accident).

m. 28 Jun 1936 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Harry [a.k.a. Henry] Frederick Wilcoxon, an English Actor born in Dominica, BWI, [he was 30, she was 19]

 1936

She and Henry travelled together from the UK to the USA in May 1937 on the "Queen Mary", and here they are shortly aftwerwards, "christening the old swimming hole at his Malibu Mountain Ranch [in California, and called 'Seven Oaks']":

 The Los Angeles Times

"The former Sheila Garrett, now Mrs Henry Wilcoxon, looked so good to a sheik of the Ageyli tribe that he tried to buy her from the British actor. The sheik offered 10 Pounds British, gold, three she-camels, a quantity of grain, a jewelled dagger, a prayer rug from the palace of the Emir at Mecca, and several hareem girls."

"Sheila and Harry Wilcoxon tossed an outdoor gala at Sevenoaks Ranch. They hired a blimp to fly over and drop favors with numbered ribbons and raced a flock of pigeons back to town. Guests with ribbon numbers corresponding to the winning pigeons got prizes."

They were divorced on 1 Jul 1937 - "An interlocutory divorce decree was granted today to Mrs Sheila Wilcoxon, known in films as Sheila Garrett. She testified that Wilcoxon always left her at home when visiting his ranch and was rude to her. Her sister, Lynn Browning, corroborated her evidence."

So in June 1938 she sailed back from Quebec to the UK, alone, and stayed there until October 1938, returning to the USA once more on the "Queen Mary".

 Next, we find her living in France at the outbreak of WWII, and sailing back to the USA on 19 Sep 1939. In the 1940 US Census she is listed as a "Model - Dresses", renting a house in E 54th St, NYC.

And somehow, between 1940 and 1944, she managed to learn how to fly, having apparently shown no interest in it before then. Her ATA file says she had been a "flying instructress" and to have served in "War Training Service US Navy".

She then travelled from New York to Liverpool, arriving on the 10 Mar 1944 to join the ATA.

Address in Apr 1944: 12-13 Montague St, London WC1

 She was taken on as a pilot cadet, and promoted to 3rd Officer on 12 Aug 1944.

After the ATA, Sheila travelled back to the USA from Liverpool on 3-16 July 1945.

m. 3 Mar 1946 George Alfred Moszkowski (b. 1894 in Warsaw) in Habana, Cuba

"Sheila Garrett was a very close friend of my mother’s. After the war she had a long-term on and off relationship with author Robert Ruark (Something of Value). She used to come and stay with us at our home in Mexico City for long periods, sometimes with and sometimes without Robert.

On one occasion she arrived by taxi in the middle of the night, having totally destroyed her beautiful white Chrysler 300 by hitting a rock (at about 100mph, according to her) somewhere on the highway driving down from the US. I believe the rock survived!

 My mother used to stay at her flat in London on her visits. I knew her very well; she was very tall [actually, 5ft 8in, but described as 'tall build'] and absolutely gorgeous!"

In the 60s, she lived in Long Valley, NJ, but also had:

 ...a flat at 7 Greycoat Gardens, London SW1

 She appeared in 7 episodes of a TV series called "Bonsoir" in 1962, as "herself".

"Towards the end of her life she lived in San Pedro near Marbella, Spain and married Bill Vanderveldt who had been a boyfriend decades before and had never really fallen out of love with her - they were blissfully happy together in Spain until Sheila sadly predeceased Bill. We visited on numerous occasions, including one trip when Sheila and my mother (both in their 60s) drove Sheila’s unairconditioned right hand drive Mini Countryman from Andalusia to San Sebastian to catch the ferry to the U.K.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.78	3rd Officer	Virginia Louise Garst
	b. 28 Nov 1918, New York	14 Apr-42 to 24 Nov-42

Father: Frederick Raymond Garst, mother Bessie Jean [Unk]

Next of Kin: Mrs E A Reedy, Kansas City (mother)

Ed: St Mary's Academy, Leavenworth, Kansas City, then Sarachon-Hooley Secretarial School 1936-7

Learnt to fly at Joe Jacobson Flying School, Kansas City

prev. Flight Instructor

prev exp: 513 hrs (186 hrs  as instructor)

Address in 1942: 3344 Gillham Rd, Kansas City MI, then 307 Natchez Building, New Orleans, LA

Four women from the Kansas City Chapter of the 99s Organisation of Women Fliers applied to join the ATA - Virginia, Mrs Marie Page, 38, Leah Sheppard, 31, and Mrs Helen Hayworth, 39.

Travelled to Bristol from Halifax, NS on the SS Tetela with Sue Ford, Grace Stevenson and Hazel Raines, arriving 11 May 1942.

Off sick from 13 Aug to 31 Oct 1942 with appendicitis, and then from 8 to 22 Nov with the "after-effects" - her medical report says "it was noted that this pilot's entire attitude to flying had changed, so much so that I hesitate to recommend the continuance of her service."

Contract Terminated  - Medical Grounds

m. Walter V Bottjer

Moved to Texas c.1959

d. 19 Dec 1968 - El Paso, TX [Mastosis Carcinoma]

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.94 *	First Officer	Mrs Margaret Helen 'Mardi' Gething
	b. 20 Dec 1920, Melbourne, Australia	12 Aug 1942 to Sep 1944

RAeC 1939

1945

 née Gepp

Father: Sir Herbert William Gepp, "mining metallurgist and manager, public servant, industrialist and publicist"; mother Jessie Powell [Hilliard]

m.  May 1940 in Toronto, Flt-Lt Richard Gething

Postings: 15FPP

3 accidents, none her fault:

- 12 Dec 1942, forced landing in Avro Tutor K3276 following engine failure

- 30 May 1943, her Argus EV785, was hit by Spitfire VII R7211 being taxied by Mary Wilkins, damaging the Argus' propeller and the Spitfire's wingtip. "The pilot's [Wilkins] judgement was probably impaired by the effects of an accident two days earlier. She should have been medically examined before flying again and O.C. 15FPP is therefore held responsible"

- 15 Aug 1944, a forced landing in Swordfish III HS553 after a petrol leak into the cockpit.

She sailed back to Australia in November 1944 on SS 'Nestor'

 "She returned to Australia, and in early 1945 joined the crew of Lancaster bomber "G for George" as public relations officer for its tour of Australia to raise money for the Third Victory Loan Appeal.

In the 1940s, Mardi also worked briefly for The Age as a society reporter.

When Richard returned to the Air Ministry in late 1945, Mardi joined him to resume life together in a small village south of London. Their two children were born in 1947 and 1949. Mardi continued her flying career as a member of the RAF Volunteer Reserve until Richard was posted for two years to Singapore.

Later the family was stationed in Northern Ireland, then in Scotland, before Richard (now an Air Commodore) worked a final stint at the Air Ministry in London.

In 1959, the family returned to Australia, settling at Red Cliffs, near Mildura. Here Mardi's and Richard's interests turned from powered aircraft to gliders. They became enthusiastic members of the Sunraysia Gliding Club, joined during school holidays by their children, who became solo pilots soon after their 15th birthdays.

Mardi, a keen member of the Australian Women Pilots Association (AWPA), became the first female licensed gliding instructor in Australia, and for a time held the women's altitude record for a glider flight (13,000 feet). Mardi and Richard both became nationally accredited gliding instructors and taught new club level instructors around Australia.

In 1966 they moved to the Gepp family property at Kangaroo Ground near Melbourne, from where they continued their Australia-wide gliding activities. In retirement, they travelled widely around Australia and overseas, visiting wartime and service friends and colleagues. They also took the opportunity to drop into any gliding centres on their route.

When Richard died in 2004, their wonderful partnership in aviation had lasted more than 64 years.."

Mardi Gething's obituary written by her daughter Mary-Jane Gething and published in The Age newspaper on Aug 11, 2005

https://www.spitfireassociation.com/

d. 16 Jul 2005 - Templestowe, Victoria, Australia

RAeC 1934

ATA

Father Harry M. Glass, 9, Whitehall, London SW1. 

Educated 'privately'.

A well-known pre-war racing aviator; prev. exp. 523 hrs on Avro Cadet, D.H. Moth, and B.A. Eagle, in "Egypt, Italy, France, Hungary, Germany, and the North African Coast."

Mabel, her sister Sheila and their pet tortoise, at the Tynwald Air Race in 1938 (they were disqualified for making a wrong turn at the start.)

And their pet tortoise's name was George.

Owned 1931 D.H. 60G Moth G-ABOE, then 1934 B.A. Eagle G-ACPU.

prev. a WAAF, A/C/W 2 from 22 Sep 1939

Address in 1940: 'Arnlui', Cranley Rd, Guildford

 She answered the question on her ATA application form "Are you prepared to serve?" with "Very much so!"

Postings: 15FPP, 6FPP, 5FPP, 16FPP, 12FPP

 "F/O Glass is a very good pilot and exceptionally keen. She has worked hard and conscientously but is inclined to lack imagination when flying. Her tendency to push through very bad weather has now been checked."

"A very keen strong pilot. No work is too much for her."

However, she was reprimanded twice for taxying without due care; once when her Anson hit a parked Spitfire after skidding on a wet runway, and then when her Hudson ground-looped and sustained damage to its port rudder, flap and aileron. On the second occasion she was docked 3 days pay. 

Post-WWII, Mabel, Sheila and their mother settled in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.

 c.1953, holding the President's Cup of the Zululand Flying Club

National Library of Australia

Mabel continued to compete in aviation races until her death.

d. 4th Nov 1967 - Westville, Durban, South Africa.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Daphne Goodman
	b. 1 Mar 1922, Surbiton	27 Aug 1943 to 13 Nov 1943

Father: W N Goodman

Ed. Bedales School, Petersfield, Hants

prev: Civil Servant, Ordnance Survey from Sep 1942

Address in 1953: 4 Brook Gardens, Kingston Hill, Surrey

ab initio trainee

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 m. Jul 1949 in Surrey, Peter Derrick Newington, a TV film maker (1 son, 1 daughter, marriage dissolved)

d. c. 2010, in Abbey Rd, London

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Una Julia Goodwin
	b. 24 Dec 1902, Virgie AR	10 Jun-42 to 2 Sep-42

Father: John Porter Godwin, from Cordell OK

ed. 4 yrs High School, 2 yrs Dramatic Art at Dallas Academy

Learnt to fly in 1929 in Oklahoma; "I am confident my future is in aviation and am willing to give up almost anything to get ahead in it", she said.

prev: clerk; secretary of the Oklahoma section of the 99 Club of women pilots launched in 1929 by Amelia Earhart; barnstorming and aerobatics displays

2nd woman in Oklahoma to get a transport pilot rating, in 1937

prev. exp 380hrs

 Next of kin: (sister) Mrs Marcia O Mills, 216 Congress Ave, San Antonio TX

Address in 1940: 3350 16th SNW, Washington DC (previously 1929-1941, 902 E Dr, Oklahoma City)

Arrived from Nova Scotia on the 29 June 1942 with fellow ATA women pilots Peggy Lennox and Mary Zerbel; on joining the ATA, Una said she was anxious to rejoin her friend, Grace Stevenson.

One accident:

27 Aug 1942, when her foot slipped off the rudder when landing a Hart, causing a ground loop

[Contract Terminated by ATA - unlikely to become an efficient ferry pilot]

Returned to the USA to find that she was over the age limit for WASP training, and so joined the Womens Army Corps in April 1944 as a Private and was stationed in Florida as a Link Trainer, until being demobbed in Sep 1945.

In 1944 she said "Personally I have no post-war plans for flying. I'll fly for entertainment, but like many other trained women pilots, I'll take a back seat in the paying flying positions to make way for the men."

 Moved to San Antonio in 1976

 Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery

d. 4 Mar 1978 - San Antonio, Texas

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

RAeC 1938

BG

Father: William Wyndham Gore, a mining engineer; mother: Martha [Lord]

Ed. Bedford High School (but mainly grew up in Ireland, until 1929).

Having made her first solo flight in Nov 1938 at Romford Flying Club, she was one of the Assistant Instructors there by the following September, along with Gabrielle Patterson (whose husband Pat also covered the 'theory' side of things) and Joan Hughes

prev. Secretary, British Reinforced Concrete, then at Smithfield Market

Postings: Hatfield, 15FPP, 1FPP

On the outbreak of WWII, she was one of the second batch of women pilots for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), starting on the 25 June 1940 as 'W.10' - the 10th woman pilot. She was consistently praised, both for her flying and her organisational ability: "First Officer Gore is a very steady and reliable pilot and has undertaken responsibilities in the office which she has carried out well."

Eventually, she was promoted to be Officer Commanding, No 15 Ferry Pool of women pilots at Hamble - one of only two women to achieve the rank of 'Commander', the other being Marion Wilberforce.

15 FPP pilots, between flights.

She was also one of the 11 women cleared to fly 4-engined aircraft, which she did so from May 1943 - "A keen and confident pilot of above average ability", but once she took over as OC Hamble, she cut down her flying hours considerably, prompting the Head of the ATA (Gerard d'Erlanger) to write "In her capacity of Commanding Officer, No 15 Ferry Pool, Commander Gore runs her Pool in an eminently satisfactory manner. However, I am very surprised that she has only done some 5 hours flying in seven months on ferry types. There may be some reason for this of which I am unaware, but if not she must make every effort to put in time."

And finally, she was one of only 6 women to get a medal for her service in the ATA - an MBE in 1946.

[The other MBEs were Felicity Bragg, Pauline Gower, Joan Hughes, Roy (Mary) Sharpe and Rosemary Rees, although Phillippa Bennett, Victoria Cholmondley and Elisabeth May got 'Commendations'.]

 Margot and Joan in 1947 (The Times)

In 1947, she signed on as 'Recruit No. 1' for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Flying) List, designed to train pilots for non-operational duties in emergencies. Joan Nayler, another ATA Woman pilot, was No. 2.

She then became Managing Director of the West London Aero Club.

In 1948, she was called by the prosecution at the court martial of her elder brother, Colonel Thomas Gerard Gore DSO, OBE, on charges which alleged that he had received money from a Mr Newman, knowing it came from the sale of stolen arms.

Margot testified that "her brother had never been very good at business affairs or, anything that demanded a high degree of intellectual effort." [Ouch]

 Colonel Gore was sentenced to be cashiered and serve two years imprisonment. Major-General James D Dennlson, Director of Ordnance Services at the time of the Invasion of Normandy, told the Court that he had referred him as "a problem child," but said that Colonel Gore was a first-class leader in war-time."

In 1952, aged 39, she passed out as Gold Medallist (of course) at the British School of Osteopathy and later practised as an osteopath, eventually becoming (of course) its Chairman.

In retirement Margot was "an enthusiastic golfer".

I bet she was good at that, too...

d. 28 Aug 1993 - Sue Ryder Home, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire.

This is her memorial in Maidenhead Cemetery:

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

IWM interview here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009075

W.149	3rd Officer	Joyce 'Joy' Gough
	b. 14 Feb 1923, Cirencester, Glos	28 Dec 1943 to 30 Sep 1945

[see also Yvonne Wheatley, her elder sister, also an ATA pilot]

Father: Arthur Victor Gough, a professional footballer turned hairdresser, mother Doris Irene Alexandra (Herbert]

Ed. Stratton School, Cirencester Grammar School

prev: Cashier, Lloyds Bank, Cirencester

Address in 1943: Galba Villas, Prospect Place, Cirencester

Postings: 5TFPP, 15FPP, 12FPP, 7FPP

Ab initio Trainee

 One accident: 

- 3 Feb 1945, forced landing after she discovered that the hood of her Spitfire Vb EP661 had "been blown away", reason unknown

 Class III pilot

 Gained her Royal Aero Club Pilot's Certificate (No 20586) as part of the ATA's 'Wings' scheme on 29 Sep 1945

m. 1945 in London, F/O Jiri HartmanDFC, formerly Cmdr, 'A' Flight, 310 (Czech) Sqn, RAF

Joy and Jiri moved to Prague, but had to flee back to the UK in 1948 after the coup d'etat.

m.  Jun 1971 in Warwickshire, Charles James Lofthouse, who had been an RAF Lancaster pilot and PoW in WWII (d. 2002)

She became a Special Needs Teacher

Joy (2nd from right) at the unveiling of the ATA Memorial in Hamble-le-Rice, 2010

d. 15 Nov  2017

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

interviewed here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009633

W.25	Senior Commander	Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower MBE  Mrs Fahie
	b. 22 Jul 1910, Tunbridge Wells	1 Dec-39 to Oct-45

RAeC 1930

ATA

5 feet 5 in height, in case you wondered.

"In England you can count on one hand the women who are making a living directly from flying. Probably foremost among them are the two girl flyers, Pauline Gower and Dorothy Spicer, who work in partnership at joy-riding. Miss Gower is the pilot and Miss Spicer the mechanic."

Amy Mollison, writing in 1934

"Pauline Gower, one of the few women who has already achieved a successful commercial flying career, did joyriding last year in 185 different towns with a travelling air circus."

Mary Bertha de Bunsen

She was fined £222 in 1933, having taxied her Spartan into a stationary Moth at Cardiff while giving joy-rides in an air pageant (although she reckoned it had definitely moved since she checked where it was). Three years later, she was taken to hospital suffering from concussion and 'lacerations of the scalp' after she... collided with another aeroplane on the ground, this time at Coventry airport.

She owned:

a 1929 Simmonds Spartan, G-AAGO, (the one which she wrote off in the taxying accident in Cardiff in August 1933), and then

a 1931 Spartan Three Seater, G-ABKK, the one which she wrote off in the taxying accident at Coventry in May 1936.

During her air-taxi career, she was reckoned to have piloted more than 33,000 passengers.

In 1937 she, Amy Johnson and Dorothy Spicer invited "all women pilots interested in the idea of a central meeting-place for women aviators in London" to write to them, but I don't think it ever happened.

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

Founder and first Commandant of the Women's Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1940; from 1943, a board member of BOAC. She had a narrow escape in August 1943 when 'Fortuna', an old Imperial Airways airliner, with her and 7 other BOAC officers aboard, made a forced landing near Shannon and was written off.

  HoM

Silver salver presented to Pauline on her wedding day on 2 June 1945, signed by over 90 of the women ATA pilots.  (Lois Butler signed twice, though)     Click to enlarge.

Married Wing Commander William Cusack Fahie in June 1945, but died of a heart attack in March 1947 giving birth to twin boys, one of whom, Michael, later published 'A Harvest of Memories' about her.

Pauline Gower and Dorothy Spicer - In Memory

by Claudia Parsons

 from "The Woman Engineer", Spring 1948

It is grimly ironical that Mrs Fahie, M.B.E., and Mrs Richard Pearse, better known as Pauline Gower and Dorothy Spicer, after the risks of their early youth and of the war, should meet death, the one through the age-old hazard of child-birth, the other as a passenger in an air liner flying to South America. It is also grimly tragic that these partners who risked, endured and enjoyed so much together should die within a year of each other. Though neither got further than the middle thirties they filled the brief interval between attaining majority and leaving life with a record of hard work, pioneering experience and fine achievement that was as gallant as it was short lived.

Yet in using that word 'gallant' one hesitates, not questioning its truth but out of consideration for the two who achieved this record, whose aim was never more than to pursue a private ambition and to do it well. The word 'gallant' would have been held by them in derision.

I feel honoured to write the appreciation of these two fellow members of The Women's Engineering Society, whose careers I always followed with particular interest since first meeting them on a tour of the Ford works at Dagenham, organised by the W.E.S. Mere babes they then seemed, the one very round of face the other with fairest hair, and it was only in the course of this visit that I learnt their names and remembered having read that Sir Robert Gower, M.P., had given his daughter an aeroplane as a twenty-first birthday present and that now, with Dorothy Spicer as her ground engineer, she was using the plane to give people joy-rides and for aerial taxi service.

In the following years as I watched these two soar ever higher, in the metaphorical rather than the literal sense, I used to ponder this parental gesture which, so early as 1931, might have seemed to many to be rash and courting trouble, and reflected how often really enterprising acts were well rewarded and that here was one that had laid the foundation stone of two successful careers. In this I was not altogether accurate; this was the coping rather than the foundation stone. The gesture was indeed the greatest assistance but in no means were Pauline or Dorothy ever financed or given much moral support in their early ambition, which at first was viewed as a joke by their contemporaries. Like Madame Curie, and others of set purpose, before embarking on their careers they had to find the money with which to train, and in this interest Dorothy spent a year in a London store and Pauline gave violin lessons and lectures at schools. This was while still in their teens and before joining forces, in their twenties, at Stag Lane aerodrome where they decided to go into partnership. Already therefore, in 1931, in spite of opposition and setback, Pauline had her A and B Flying Licences and Dorothy had an A Pilot's Licence and Engineer's Licence, and one rather gathers, reading the pages of Women with Wings - the book the two of them later published - that the hand of Sir Robert Gower was forced rather then held out eagerly with the gift of a two-seater Spartan plane. The gift was advanced only in the face of the inevitable, and as a safety measure, Pauline so often coming home late for meals with harrowing tales of forced landings with hired machines. (The forced landings were not always the fault of the machine.)

Indeed, in those early days of gaining experience, Pauline on a cross-country flight often came down to ask the way; there were narrow margins between forced landings and the petrol running dry; there was the occasion of flying the Channel at 250 feet and of making a forced landing at Brussels and finding it was Liege. Yes, there were many harrowing moments whose memory later made thri blood run cold, but there was also the exuberance and confidence of youth and a very decided will to conquer. It was perhaps typical that in her night flying test for the B Pilot's Licence, after two hours in the air, cut off from the earth by a ground fog that had formed, Pauline, determined not to become panic-stricken, suddenly remembered an old friend - her mouth organ - on which she played 'Show me the way to go home'. And she was shown.

If these two started with a light-hearted attitude towards flying, their subsequent experiences in joy-riding, in joining up with Air Pageants and Air Circuses and in working in all weathers and cvonditions, gave them a far higher sense of respinsibility. They formed themselves into a Limited Liability Company - Air Trips, Ltd. - and worked for two seasons from a field near Hunstanton where they themselves camped beside their plane in a caravan. B~y the time she had carried 3,000 passengers Pauline was foremost among women air pilots in skill and reliability and had added to her A and B Licences a Navigator's Licence and a G.P.O. Wireless Operator's Certificate. Meanwhile Dorothy had had wide experience of servicing machines and in the winter, during enforced flying activity, had studied for her Engineer's Licences, the first woman ever to attain the A, B, C and D Engineering Licences. Pauline often stressed how much the safety of herself and her passengers depended on Dorothy's efficient care of the machine; her praise was equally divided between Dorothy's engineering ability and, on those long periods of camping, her excellent cooking.

It is scarcely necessary to to remind fellow members of the later achievements of these two pioneers. With such experience behind them it is not surprising that they gave valuable service to their country both during the war and in the years preceeding it when they played a leading part in making the public air-minded. Members of the WES will remember papers read by each of them at the September Conference in 1937. In 1938 Dorothy joined the staff of the Air Registration Board and added to her qualifications a No 1 Glider's (Engineering) Licence. Later in this year, and with Pauline as her bridesmaid, she was married to Squadron Leader Richard Pearse who, when the war broke out, was in the RAF Coastal Command. Just before the war Patricia Mary was born and later Dorothy took up war work with the Ministry of Aircraft Production on research in connection with engines in flight. With her husband posted to her Flight, she had the unique opprtunity of working in war-time together with her husband. It was after the war, in December, 1946, and retired from their war activities, that Wing Commander and Mrs Pearse lost their lives in the air liner that crashed near Rio de Janeiro. Their daughter Patricia survives them.

In the meantime Pauline, who in 1938, had obtained an Air Ministry's Instructor's Licence, had been appointed to serve on the Committee investigating the position of civil aviation in this country, and later was made District Commissioner for the London area of the Civil Air Guard. Of her activities in building up the Women's branch of the A.T.A., members of the WES heard her oqn account when, in 1946, she gave us an interesting talk on this subject, accompanied now by her husband, Wing Commander Fahie, RAFVR, to whom she was married in 1945.

When invited to be Commandant of the women pilots in the A.T.A., Pauline stipulated that she must have a free hand in order to do this, a condition for which, interestingly, another great woman pioneer stipulated when asked to take over the hospital service in the Crimea. The fine achievement of the women serving in the A.T.A., their record, and the fact that some of them were finally ferrying heavy four-engined bombers, is a proof of how well Pauline used her powers. In 1943 she was appointed a member of the board of the British Overseas Airways Corporation. Pauline died on March 2nd, 1947, her twin sons surviving her.

That is the record of what they did; a bleak summary of achievements is unavailing, however, unless some mention is also made of what they were. Impressive as their qualifications, achievbements and later honours might be, it was the human side that interested most people, it was their pleasant unaffected charm that everyone noticed. One can pay no higher tribute to Dorothy than to recall Pauline's description of her, referring to their partnership, as one whose 'business' reliability proved always as unfailing as her friendship. There is also the tribute paid by Amy Johnson, who was their friend of long standing and who finally worked under Pauline for the A.T.A. In the foreword she wrote for Women with Wings she refers to staying at Pauline's home at Tunbridge Wells and listening to her and Dorothy singing to the banjulele, and winds up: "I played the part of spectator, admiring the utterly unspoiled character of two girls who have done more than their bit in making aviation history."

They owed their leading position in the field of aviation to hard work and often severe discomfort; they never set out on record-breaking or otherwise spectacular flights; they did what they did because they enjoyed it and it was the thing they had chosen and wanted to master. There was no intention of ending life swiftly and heroically; they had every hope of seeing this precarious century to its final chapter and Pauline in her book prophesied a time when she and Dorothy would be old ladies still flying an antiquated machine and the passengers in a rocket would lean out and say, "Look at those old girls in that pre-historic bus!" Alas, this is no longer a possibility but to what extent air transport has been influenced by the two who will never be old ladies, and whose memory will always be associated with youth, is impossible to measure.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.64	First Officer	Beatrice Glanley 'Betty' Grant
	b. 21 Jul 1913, Calcutta, India	16 Dec 1941 to 30 Nov 1945

Father: Walter Neil Cardiner Grant, an East India Merchant, mother  [Tindall]

Stepmother: (from 1923) Beatrice Blanche [Glanley]

 "of 12 Hyde Park Place, W.2 and The Thatches, Angmering-on-Sea, Sussex (late of Calcutta)."

Postings include: 1FPP

2 accidents, 1 her fault:

- 16 Nov 1942, she landed Hurricane II HW861 in poor visiblity, the aircraft swung off the runway and tipped onto its nose

- 13 Jan 1943, the flaps and brakes failed to work in Spitfire IIc MB258 when landing, and the aircraft overshot.

m 28 Jun 1943 Norman Lambert Hayman also of the ATA, [a reception was held afterwards at Claridge's] but they appear to have separated sometime before 1947.

"Between 90 and 100 Cheshire Women's Junior Air Corps Cadets were taken up for 20 minute flights in the £1,600 Argus bought by the Corps last year.

Mrs Betty Hayman, of Lonton, 34-year old ex-ferry pilot, who flew Spitfires during the war, wore a navy costume, wedgees, and silk stockings to fly the Argus" - Manchester Evening News, May 1948

In September 1949, she and her stepmother Beatrice sailed to South Africa, apparently intending to settle there, but they returned in July 1950.

m. Mar 1964 John Edward .A. d'Aguilar

 Lived at Dungate Manor, Reigate Heath

d. 25 Jan 1990 - Reigate, Surrey

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Joan Mary Grinling
	b. 23 Sep 1917, Grantham Lincs	8 May 1944 to 10 Jun 1944

Father: Col. Edward Johns Grinling DSO, MC, TD, mother Helen Marie [Cafferata]

Address in 1944: Fairfields, Grantham, Lincs

prev. ATS, WAAF

[ab initio]

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 m. Apr 1948 in London, Brian Lester Howell

d. Jul 1972 - Colchester

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Muriel Joan Gripton
	b. 6 Jul 1921, West Bromwich	27 Mar-43 to 7 May-43

 prev: Telephonist/Receptionist, West Brom & District General Hospital

prev exp: 20min

[Contract Terminated by ATA - 'unsuitable']

m. 1945 in W Bromwich, Frederick E C P Underhill

d. 24 Dec 2007, Worthing, W Sussex

"Suddenly but peacefully in Worthing Hospital on December 24, 2007, aged 86 years.

Adored Mother to Wendy and David, and loving Nannie to Tess and Rory. "

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

4th April 1941:

"Second Officers Pitman and Guinness attended for confirmation of appointment flight test on the 30th March, 1941 and both were successful.

Miss Guinness is considered above average for the amount of experience she has had."

Veronica Innes (who started on the same day, mentions her (and the conformation of appointment flight test) but simply says she "unfortunately, failed to make the grade and retired early from the scene."

[... but so far, no more details of the mysterious Miss Guinness have emerged]

[Grania Guinness, who joined the WAAF in May 1942, told me that she was never in the ATA]

W.142	3rd Officer	Sylvia 'Mary' Guthrie
	b. 9 Jun 1921, Thornton Heath Surrey	18 Oct 1943 to 30 Sep 1945

ATA

ATAM

Father d. 1925 having been gassed in WWI

Stepfather Mr Grapel, d. 1944

One sister; brother James died in WWII

Ed. Montrose College, Cliftonville; RADA

prev: Blind School Hospital, Leatherhead; Mobile VAD (voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse, attached to various RAF Hospitals, from Feb 1941 to Jul 1943 (where she worked with Monique Agazarian, and played tennis with Dan Maskell)

Applied after seeing an advertisement, interviewed at White Waltham.

 ab initio pilot cadet [because "I thought it would be glamorous"]

 Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP

3rd Officer from 11 Aug 1944 - Class 3 pilot

 One accident, not her fault:

- 31 May 1945, the hood blew off her Spitfire XVI TD134 and damaged the fin and rudder

 Gained her RAeC 'A' Certificate No 20588 as part of the ATA 'Wings' scheme on 29 Sep 1945, and later a Commercial 'B' Licence:

  RAeC 1945

Address in 1945:17 Basil Mansions, Basil St, London SW3

From January 1946, 'Star Girl No. 1', Britain's first post-war air hostess, for British South American Airlines: (see also Rita Baines, who was 'Star Girl No. 2).

Her first BSAA flight was in a Lancastrian from the newly-opened 'Heath Row Airport' with ex-Pathfinder chief Don Bennett, the MD of BSAA, on board.

 Flew Spitfires and Hurricanes for Skyways to the Portuguese Air Force, until she crashed a Spitfire

m. Jan 1952 in Kensington, Cyril John Cunningham

daughter Deborah b. 1955?

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

IWM interview (1987) here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009976

W.75	First Officer	Helen Marcelle Harrison
	b. 7 Dec 1909, Vancouver, B.C., Canada	1 May-42 to 22 Mar-44

nee Testemale

Father : Albert Jules Testemale, Mother: Gertrude Helen Marie [Harrison], a midwife, d.1958

Ed. in England and Belgium

Lived at The Hostry, Llantilio Crossenny, Abagavenny from 1910-1926

m 1927 Robert W Barnes in Steyning, Sussex [divorced, 3 sons Robert, Peter and David]

prev. Flying Instructor

Learnt to fly in 1933 at the Sussex Aero Club, when living at Coombe Dingle, Queens Park Rd, Caterham, Surrey

 She owned 3 aeroplanes in England before WWII, all based at Shoreham;

- G-ACMH, a 1933 Miles Hawk (sold to Denmark in Sep 1934),

- G-ACGB, a 1933 DH Fox Moth (sold to India in Mar 1935), and

- G-ACWW, a 1934 Miles Hawk Major (sold to Leslie Hiscock in 1939). She entered this in the London to Cardiff Race in October 1934, piloted by J Sale.

She then changed her name by deed poll to Harrison in Apr 1935, and announced it in The Times: "I HELEN MARCELLE HARRISON, of 33, Heathurst Road. Sanderstead. Surrey, hereby give notice that I have RENOUNCED and ABANDONED the NAME of HELEN MARCELLE BARNES. and that I have assumed and intend henceforth on all occasions whatsoever and at all times to SIGN and USE and to be called and known by the name of HELEN MARCELLE HARRISON in lieu of and in substitution for my former name of HELEN MARCELLE BARNES. And I also give notice that such change of name is formally declared and evidenced by a Deed Poll under my hand and seal, dated the 20th day of April. 1935"

Sailed from England to South Africa in Dec 1935 

 m. Louis Botha de Waal (divorced 1939)

 Sailed back to England from Cape Town in Feb 1938, then to New York in Apr 1939. When there, she stayed with her mother, Gertrude, at 5102 Evelyn Byrd Rd, Richmond, VA.

 In July 1939, the Star-Phoenix of Saskatoon, said "Flying around Hamilton these days is a young Vancouver-born woman whose exciting aviation career has taken her over most of South Africa, Great Britain and the United States."

"The Vancouver aviatrix has spent most of her time over the past six years in the air. She said she found flying cost money, so she turned instructor and taught at the Pretoria and other flying schools throughout South Africa. She holds five aviation licenses, including English 'A' and 'B' commercial, a South African 'B' licence and both United States and Canadian commercial licenses."

She flew on a Trans-Canada Airlines Lodestar from Toronto to New York on 3rd March 1942 for her interview with Jackie Cochran. She then sailed to the UK with Evelyn Hyam to join the ATA, arriving 25 May 1942.

While with the ATA, she sailed to New York on 21 Jul 1943, and returned as supernumerary co-pilot in Mitchell FR185, 19-24 Sep 1943.

Address in 1942: 680 Oriole Parkway, Toronto

Sailed to New York on the Queen Mary, 31 Mar 1944.

 In 1949, she was living with her parents in Curtis St, Lochdale, B.C.

m. 1969 Donald M Bristol, and thereafter was known as Harrison-Bristol

In 1973, named to the Order of Icarus and in 1974, Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame: "The career dedication of her flying skills to instruct an almost entirely male population of students, despite adversity, has substantially benefited Canadian aviation."

d. 27 Apr 1995 - Blaine, WA

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Dorothy Frances Helmy
	b. 31 Oct 1910, Padstow, Cornwall	2 Dec 1941 to 12 Jun 1942

 nee: Arkell

 Father: Herbert Arkell, Mother: Marie Louise

Royal Aero Club Certificate No. 16399, 16 Oct 1938 (Airwork School of Flying, Heston) (photo missing)

Address in 1938: "Courtfield", Courthouse Rd S, Maidenhead

prev. Bookkeeper, Secretary; A R P

m. 1940 in Maidenhead Saleh Helmy (b. 1905 in Cairo, Egypt)

  Royal Aero Club Certificate No. 18315, 24 Sep 1938 (Airwork School of Flying, Heston)

Saleh designed the Helmy Aerogypt  at Heston Aerodrome in 1938. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane initially powered by three 22 hp (16 kW) Douglas Sprite engines, with an upward hinged roof that acted as a landing flap. Registered G-AFFG, it first flew in 1939. 

 ... and this is presumably Dorothy and Saleh with the Aerogypt I (she was registered as the owner)

It was based at White Waltham Airfield from 1943, but written off in 1946 and spent its remaining days as a hen coop:

 in 1960 ('Flight')

 d. 5 Mar 1993 - West Wittering, Sussex

W.150	3rd Officer	[Adi] Sophie Evelyn Veisa Mara 'Beausie' Hennings
	b. 16 May 1915, Navabatu, Vanua Balavu Fiji	29 Nov-43 to Feb-45

Father: Gustav Mara Hennings (b. Dec 1868 in Lakeba Island, Fij, d. 17 Apr 1955 at his plantation home on Naitauba Island)

  1955 - Pacific Island Weekly

[Naitauba Island is the red dot, Lakeba Island is where 'Tubou' is, to the SSE]

 [Fiji became a British colony in 1874, so had a Governor from then on; Sophie was related to the last King of Fiji, Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, because her great-grandfather (Ratu Kamisese Mara Tuimacilai Kapaiwa) was his cousin (and was executed by him in 1859 :-))

 Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau in 1883

 Mother: Elizabeth [Vogel], (m. 1912),

[Sophie had two sisters, plus a half-brother born to Gustav's 'partner', Palu Miller]

"[Sophie's grandfather] William Hennings and his brothers established the cotton industry in Fiji... scarcely an island exists in northern Lau which has not belonged to or has been connected with the Hennings family at one time." - Pacific Island Weekly

Sophie and sister Elizabeth travelled on the SS 'Mariposa' in 1936, described as 'Half Caste Fijian German'.

[The Hennings brothers were from Germany, so Sophie presumably qualified as British due to Fiji being a British Colony.]

prev: M.T. Driver for ATA

Postings include: 5TFPP, 15FPP

Ab initio Trainee

 2 accidents:

- 5 Oct 1944, she made a heavy landing in Spitfire V R7205, the starboard undercarriage leg collapsed and the aircraft ground-looped

- 24 Mar 1945, a tyre burst on her Argus II HB632 on landing, and the aircraft veered off the runway

m.  Oct 1951 in London, Cyril Montague 'Penny' Pennington-Richards, a film director

d. Jun 1991 - Chichester, W Sussex

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.61	3rd Officer	Rhoda Elinor Heppell
	b. 1 Feb 1920, Newcastle-on-Tyne	16 Dec 1941 to 31 Jul 1942

 Father: Sqn-Ldr Philip Forsythe Heppell, with the British Air Staff in Washington DC; mother Dorothy Elizabeth [Fryer]

Her father was a WWI RFC pilot and one of the founders of Newcastle Aero Club, "where he taught his children to fly as soon as they left school."

[Her brother, Philip Whaley Ellis Heppell, also became a Squadron Leader in WWII; the three of them were known as the 'Flying Heppells']

Ed. St Helens, Abingdon, and Berne

prev: 1939-41 Driver, ATS

Address in 1941: Keston. Matthew Bank, Newcastle-on-Tyne

m. 1942? Roy? Croft

[A very frustrating clip from the Newcastle Journal and North Mail, 21 Jun 1943!]

m. 17 Aug 1943 in Newcastle, Stephen 'Geoffrey or Jeffrey' Fairburn

Later a Pilot Officer in the Women's Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (WRAFVR)

  Newcastle Journal

She was still flying in 1974 - she said then that "Light aircraft haven't changed that much since I started. At the time it wasn't the done thing for a woman to do, but I suppose it was inevitable I would fly."

 d. 1 Nov 2001 - Newcastle-on-Tyne

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.49 *	3rd Officer	Bridget Grace Marian Ledger Hill
	b. 7 May 1914, Camberley	15 Aug-41 to Mar-42

 Prev. Exp: 78 hrs solo

Bridget's father was Major-General Walter Pitts Hendy Hill and they lived in Amesbury, Wilts.

She earned her RAeC Certificate in Feb 1939 in Wiltshire. That September, within a fortnight of war being declared, she wrote to Marion Wilberforce;

"I am writing to know if you have any sort of flying job to offer me. I had almost completed my instructor's course, during which I did some blind flying - this was interrupted by the outbreak of war. I do hope you can find some use for me, as I adore flying and have spent everything on my training as an instructor."

And, to back her up, her instructor wrote "I hereby certify that Miss Bridget Hill has carried out 108 hours flying, of which 78 have been solo. During her training as a pilot she has shown very good progress, and as a cross-country pilot I would place her as above average.
She has learned quickly and has displayed remarkable common sense in the matter of estimating the weather in the interests of safety.
While flying here she started an instructor's course and, although this was not completed, she gave evidence of ability as an instructor."

She was actually a bit too early: "I regret to inform you that we are not considering employing lady pilots in the ATA at the moment. In any case the minimum solo flying experience requred is 250 hours. We are filing your letter, however, and if in the future the position should change we would get in touch with you."

They didn't, of course, get in touch with her, so in May 1940 she wrote again, and was offered a test.

This, as she admitted later, was a disaster: "I am more than aware what a mess I made of my test, but I think the strongest nerves could hardly help being affected by waiting from 10 to 5 with so much at stake!"

However, by December of 1940, she was brave enough to write to Pauline Gower, again; "There has been so much in the newspapers of the expansion of the ATA, that I have decided to risk bothering you again by writing to know if there is any hope for me."

This time they wrote back to say No (again) - and you still need at least 150 hours.

Most people would probably have given up by now, but Bridget was made of sterner stuff. She took a job driving a mobile canteen but, here she is again, on the 10 Mar 1941: "I am answering the appeal made on the wireless this evening by Lord Londonderry to members of the Civil Air Guard and holders of 'A' licences.... I am hoping that there is some chance of my being able to be of service."

At last, they relented, and offered her another test on the 2 April 1941. She was grateful, excited, and a bit apprehensive; "One is bound to be a bit rusty not having flown for so long..."

Her test was with Margaret Cunnison, and this time it went OK - "quite good, but would need some further training".

Even then, there was another couple of months' wait until, finally, she got the call: "Please report 15 July for 15 Aug."

She was delighted.

Kitty Farrer, the ATA Adjutant, filled in a little essential background knowledge: "She tells me she is a Baha'i, but would be satisfied with any form of christian burial!"

After 4 months at Hatfield, she was posted to Hamble, then Training Pool. Her flying instruction went well. "She is shaping very well indeed. An intelligent, hard-working pilot. Expected to do well." She completed 23hrs on Tiger Moth, 4hrs 45min on Magister.

She was seconded to No 15 Ferry Pool (Hamble) on the 19th Jan 1942, and made 75 ferry flights, totaling 129.35 hrs, in the following few weeks. She flew Tiger Moths, Puss Moths and a Wicko.

Sadly, however, she was killed at 12.20pm on the 15 Mar 1942 when flying as a passenger in Fairchild Argus HM178, which stalled and crashed onto a bungalow when returning to land at White Waltham after bad weather.

Yorkshire Evening Post, 17 Mar 1942: "AIRWOMEN KILLED Ferry Pilots' 'Plane Hit Bungalow. The Ministry of Aircraft Production announces that Flying Officer Graham Lever, Third Officer Bridget Hill, and Third Officer Bessie Sayers lost their lives in a flying accident on Sunday. The accident occurred in the course of their duties with the Air Transport Auxiliary. The 'plane crashed on to a bungalow. A fourth passenger in the machine, also a woman A.T.A. officer, was injured. Twenty-six people were injured when they rushed to the house to extricate the passengers in the 'plane. It is believed that the petrol tank in the machine exploded. The injured woman passenger was Third Officer P. D. Duncan."

THROWN CLEAR At the inquest, which was adjourned until April 14. the Coroner stated that Miss Duncan, who was in hospital, had had "an extraordinary escape." It is understood that she was thrown clear of the house as the 'plane crashed, and escaped with cuts and bruises. Among the injured were children who were in the street. The petrol tank exploded some time after the crash, owing, it is believed, to contact with a fire in the kitchen. A man named Croft, living in an adjoining bungalow, was blown through a window into the street and badly hurt but a child in the front room of the bungalow was rescued almost uninjured. "

She is buried in Britford Cemetery.

[Her older brother, Brigadier Stanley James Ledger 'Speedy' Hill, DSO**, MC, was a World War II Commander who joined the British Airborne Forces at an early stage, fought in North Africa and went on to play a vital role in the D-Day landings and the crossing of the Rhine:

see Stanley James L Hill | ParaData

"My Dear Miss Gower, I must write and tell you once again how happy in, and proud of, her Corps Bridget was. It was all one great adventure for her, and her purpose in life was to make it a success... The man who stood next to me at her graveside would have been her husband and it is so sad to think that they were deprived of that great happiness."

"I wouldn't have had my darling in any other service... it was a wonderful life and she was so supremely happy."

W.---	Cadet	Jill Elizabeth Hoar
	b. 20 Jan 1922, London	24 Jan 1944 to 22 Jun 1944

Father: George Henry Hoar, Mother: Margaret [Harper]

Ed. Welsh Girls School, Ashford, Middx and Dunelm College, Tankerton, Kent

prev: Hotel Receptionist; Clerk for Fairey Aviation Ltd; Aircraft Fitter with ATA

Address in 1944: Ellington Cottage, Ellington Rd, Taplow, Berks

 Ab initio pilot

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 m. 1947 in Kensington, London, Peter Alan Coles

d. 31 Mar 2006 - Bracknell, Berks

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Hon. Jocelyne Mary Emma Hotham
	b. 18 Apr 1908, London	15 Apr 1942 to 8 Jun 1942

Father: Lord Frederick William Hotham (6th Baron Hotham of South Dalton, d. 1923), mother Eliza Benita [Sanders] of Dalton Hall, nr Beverley

Had an elder sister, The Hon. Sylvia [m. 1924 Ralph Assheton]

Ed. Abbotts Hill, Hemel Hempstead

She and Honor Pitman (also later of the ATA) were amongst the bridesmaids to a Miss Beau Lawson-Johnston in 1927.

"WOMAN FLIER AT PERIVALE

The most interesting woman I met this week was the Hon. Jocelyn Hotham, daughter of the late Lord Hotham—the young woman who learnt to fly by a mistake.

I met her out at Perivale this week at a meeting of the Perivale Women's Fellowship. She is a slim brunette, with a passion for flying. This is how she took up aviation. "I was lunching with a young woman about a year ago, and during our conversation she quite startled me when she told me that she had taken up flying. And so, not wishing to be outdone by her," Miss Hotham laughingly added, " I set off for Heston at once and told the instructor there that I wanted to learn to fly. We set off in a bi-plane, and I confess I was rather scared. As we soared up to the clouds I felt that I was in a strange land and in a dream, and the world below looked like a huge patchwork quilt.

"Then came my three-hour solo flight, and this was a most depressing time, as up in the clouds you know that if you do anything wrong you will be killed. I managed to come through all right. and in ten days gained my pilot's licence. "Flying, in m opinion. is the most marvellous feeling in the world. One leaves all one's cares in the clouds and you feel that the whole world lies at your feet. You feel that you have done something which man wanted to do ages past.

"I get lots of fun out of flying." Miss Hotham told me. "and later on would like to attempt the more serious, sphere of aerial ambulance work, which I am 'very keen on." "Flying," she added, Is no more dangerous than other things. There is one accident to every 25,000 flights, and two-thirds of these are due to stupidity and breaking of air regulations, and a third due to engine failure over bad country."

Though, to most of the Perivale mothers present, an aeroplane was something they had viewed only at a distance, in the succeeding lantern lecture they showed a very keen interest and bombarded Miss Hotham with a barrage of questions. " - West Middlesex Gazette - Saturday 28 November 1936

prev: Commandant of Transport, Chelsea, Sep 1938- May 1940; ARP

The work of the Chelsea ARP featured in July 1939 in The Bystander - Jocelyne is shown (r, l) in these images

prev exp: 22hrs 35min on Avro Cadet

Address in 1942: Red Syke, Twiston, Clitheroe, Lancs

In 1948, "The 'Malkin Tower Repertory Company', who presented " Pendle Witches of 1948" written by Miss Jocelyne Hotham, included Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Assheton. Mr. N. Assheton. Miss Jocelyne Hotham. Miss Bridget Assheton. Miss Ann Yorke and Mr. J. E. E. Yorke. " - Clitheroe Advertiser & Times

She sold the Red Syke herd of Ayrshire dairy cattle, in 1954: "Miss Hotham Is giving up dairy farming to concentrate stock rearing and poultry keeping at Red Syke. The Ayrshire herd was established in 1944. There was keen competition for the 43 head of cattle, all of which were sold. Top price was 110 guineas."

d. May 1997 - York 

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.147	3rd Officer	June Constance 'Judy' Howden
	b. 2 Jul 1918, Pukekohe NZ	6 Dec 1943 to 12 Aug 1945

www.haddenhamairfieldhistory.co.uk

AWMM

Father: Dr C E Howden, of The Hill, Aukland, Waiuku, NZ

prev. RNZAF, WAAF until 7 Sep 1943, stationed at Woodbourne, Blenheim, NZ

She sailed on  the 'Australia Star' from Wellington via New York to Liverpool, arriving 27 Nov 1943

 Postings: 5FPP, 12FPP, 15FPP

m. Robert William 'Bob' Gummer. a pilot who served with the RNZAF in the Pacific during WWII, later a topdressing pilot.

 d. 9 Jun 2007

"She and Bob farmed in the King Country before retiring to Tutukaka near Whangarei in 1974.

Of her time at war, Mrs Gummer later wrote: "I felt I was doing something worthwhile with what skills I had and I did something I could never do in peacetime. 
"I once dreamed of flying around England in a Tiger Moth but never dreamed I'd get to do it in a Spitfire."

June Gummer is survived by her husband Bob, a son and twin daughters." - New Zealand Herald

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Maria Hrynakowska
->	b. 22 Jul 1909, Smila Russia	18 Aug-43 to 9 Dec-43

prev: Polish ATS

[Contract Terminated by ATA]

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

1937

ATA

Father: Frank Hudson (he was a butcher), Mother: Margaret

Her family moved to Alberta, Canada in March 1911 (when she was 2 years and 7 months old)

Ed. Strathcona High School, Alberta; McTavish College, Edmonton, Canada

City and provincial diving champion 1925, 27, 29

Naturalized American 25 Feb 1938 ('Declaration of Intention' 27 Dec 1934)

5ft 5in, brown hair, grey eyes

prev. Flight Instructor

prev. exp 1,000 hrs

Learnt to fly in Hawaii in 1930 and then spent 3 years there as co-director of a flying school in Honolulu that "averaged 150 Japanese, Hawaian and American pupils a year",.Her elder sister Winifred, who went with her, became aviation editor of the Star-Bulletin, Honolulu.

She "achieved international fame as a transcontinental flier and was the only Canadian girl to conduct her own flying school", then moved to Burbank to work (as a secretary) for Lockheed. She also continued as an instructor, for the Grand Central Flying School in Glendale.

Here she is in 1937, getting ready for an attempt on the world solo endurance record for light planes in her Aeronca C-3:

"She will refuel by snatching 5-gallon cans of gasoline from a speeding motor car with a fishline-and-hook arrangement" - Los Angeles Times

She stayed aloft for 19 hrs 57 min, breaking Laura Ingall's previous mark of 18 hrs 23 min, cutting the flight short because her refuelling equipment was damaged. However, she then repeated the exercise the following September after the record had been raised by Norman Doerr to 24hrs; this time she stayed up for 33hrs 9min, only coming down because of high winds..

From 1940, she taught flying to Pasadena junior college students (one of only 3 women instructors), under a C.A.A. scheme. "I just talked myself into it", she said.

Address in 1942: 1334 W. 54th St, Glendale, CA

Parents' address in 1942: 1848 Argyle Ave, W Vancouver, B.C. Canada

Sailed from Nova Scotia to Belfast to join the ATA, arriving  28 Jun 1942 with fellow pilots Edith Stearns and Catharine van Doozer.

Off sick from 17 Mar 1943 after a flying accident - she and Fay Bragg were both injured (Fay only slightly) when they were passengers in a Wellington II, piloted by Elisabeth May, which suffered port engine failure immediately after take-off and crash-landed straight ahead, at RAF Wickenby near Lincoln.

She then sailed back to New York on the 21 Aug 1943, with Opal Anderson, Margaret Lennox, Roberta Sandoz Leveaux, and Catharine van Doozer.

m. 1943 Mario W Richards

see also her story at https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

1935 - London Aeroplane Club

ATA

Father: Arthur Edward Hughes, a braid manufacturer,, mother: Lily Amelia [Lekeup] of Acreage, Harlow Common, Harlow, Essex

Educated 'privately'. 5 foot 2, build: slight, eyes: hazel.

"Miss Joan Hughes, who will be sixteen in April, is working hard to become an efficient aviator" - The Sketch, Mar 1934

"Miss Joan Hughes, a schoolgirl, says her ambition is to run an air-taxi service in partnership with her brother" - Leeds Mercury, 4 Apr 1934

She celebrated her 17th birthday by qualifying for her RAeC Certificate, making her, at the time, the youngest flyer in Great Britain.

She became an instructor with Chigwell Flying Club, then joined the Civil Air Guard at Romford in 1938.

prev. exp. 620 hrs (at the time, the women needed 600 hrs to join ATA)

Postings: 5FPP, AFTS, EFTS, 1FPP, 6FPP, 15FPP

4-engine (Class 5) pilot

Margaret, Mona and Joan in January 1940

The youngest of the 'First Eight' women ATA members who joined on the 1st January 1940, she mostly continued as an instructor, eventually at the Advanced Flying Training School at White Waltham. She did, however, ferry many types of aircraft, including Hurricane, Spitfire, Lysander, Typhoon, Mosquito, York, Fortress, Lancaster, Halifax, Liberator and Stirling.

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

She had 4 mishaps (one deemed to be her fault); 

- 12 Dec 1940, her Oxford skidded on loose ice on the runway

- 22 Aug 1941, a forced landing in Hurricane N2588 when the undercarriage jammed

- 4 Jun 1942, a landing accident when she was instructing Jocelyne Hotham in Hart K6486, which swung and tipped onto a wing,

- 22 Dec 1944, another forced landing in a Stirling III, LJ506. This was due to "[Port Outer] No 12 cylinder induction elbow blowing off")

One of the iconic images of the ATA - Joan, dwarfed by a Stirling (Brief Glory)

Her flying was always highly praised: "First Officer Hughes is an exceptionally good and level-headed pilot. She has worked extremely hard and conscientiously... a capable pilot on the Stirling; of above average ability, who, in spite of her small stature, handled the aircraft in a most satisfactory manner. She is to be complimented on such an excellent performance."

One small criticism, however: "her technical knowledge is a long way behind her flying ability & she should spend more time in study of this branch."

After WWII Joan moved to the West London Aero Club in White Waltham, then the British Airways Flying Club at Booker.

She coached Kenneth More for his role as Douglas Bader in the film 'Reach for the Sky' (1956).

She was awarded her RAF 'Wings' in June 1954, the last of 5 women (all ex-ATA pilots) to do so when serving with the short-lived (1 Feb 1949 - 1954) Women's Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (WRAFVR). The others were Jean Bird, Jackie Moggridge, Freydis Leaf and Benedetta Willis. 

 In 1956, Veronica Volkersz wrote that Joan was one of ".. only seven [women ATA pilots] are now flying commercially... Five-foot-nothing Joan Hughes, one of the few ATA girls who did the Class 5 conversion, subsequently ferrying four-engine bombers and instructing on Harvards and Hudsons, is chief flying instructor of the West London Aero Club at White Waltham"

She concluded that "The tragedy is that for women, commercial aviation is now - except, possibly, in Russia - a closed field."

n 1961 she was awarded the Jean Lennox Bird Trophy; she had trained more than 50 pilots during the year.

 MUWW

In 1965 she flew a replica of a 1909 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle in the film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines", and then a replica in simulated dog-fights for the film "The Blue Max". She later visited the US where she appeared on a television quiz show as a mystery guest.

Miss Hughes was one of the display pilots at the Shuttleworth Trust during the 1960s: "These aircraft are wonderfully removed from scientific aircraft. Everything depends on the pilot's skill, so you feel more personally involved. Apart from that you are open to the weather".

Bob Brion tells me that "Joan was my instructor at White Waltham in 1955 flying Tiger Moths... [She] treated me as an equal in what was a different world in the 50s. I have always had the greatest respect for her and her accomplishments.

A great lady."

She retired in 1985 with 11,800 hours in her logbook, 10,000 of which were as instructor, and "devoted herself to tennis, music and country walks".

She died age 74, on the 16 August 1993 in Taunton, Somerset.

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

IWM interview here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80008455

W.34	First Officer	Mary Josephine Hunter nee Corbett-Lowe
	b. 17 Dec 1913, Bromborough, Cheshire	1 Mar-41 to 6 May 43

Father: William Sidney Corbett-Lowe

Ed. Howells School, Denbigh

prev. a Teacher of Dancing

5ft 10in tall, hazel eyes

Mary told Veronica Volkersz that that her husky voice was "due not to gin but to faulty vocal cords."

m. 30 Mar 1940 David Ronald Hunter, son of the Reverend and Mrs Hunter, of Childwall Vicarage, Liverpool

Address in 1941: 30 Bidston Rd, Oxton, Cheshire

Postings: 5FPP, 15FPP

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

4 accidents, 2 her fault:

- 17 Dec 1941, she stalled her Hurricane when attempting a cross-wind landing and damaged a wing;

- 3 Oct 1942, she failed to control the take-off swing of a Tomahawk I and "swung violently";

- 2 Sep 1942, made a normal landing in a Tomahawk II but an undercarrriage leg collapsed, due to a technical problem, and

- 29 Jan 1943, her Spitfire IX was hit by a tractor while she was stationary.

"A keen and hard-working pilot" and  "An excellent pilot and a most useful member of the Ferry Pool". (Marion Wilberforce)

[Contract Terminated by ATA - 3 months notice due to pregnancy - David b. Oct 1943]

d. 2010

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W. 62 *	First Officer	Trevor Balfour Hunter
	b. 25 Jan 1915, Whanganui, NZ	20 Nov-41 to Jul-45

NZ Evening Post 1945

ATAM

Father: Douglas Horatio Dale Hunter, mother Alice Elsie

"She was named Trevor as her mother was sure that the baby would be a boy" (Oh... OK...)

Began flying lessons at the Whanganui Aero Club when she was 16, and gained her pilot's 'A' licence the following year. In December 1933, she was a passenger when E F 'Teddie' Harvie made a record flight from one end of New Zealand to the other in a day.

 Teddy Harvie and family  (Alexander Turnbull Library, WA-06347-F)

 Postings: 6FPP

6 accidents, only 1 her fault:

- 26 Nov 1942, the starboard wing of her Hurricane II KW721 hit a marker beacon when she misjudged the landing approach

- 13 Jan 1943, a forced landing in Defiant TT1 DR978 following a burst brake pipe

- 21 Jan 1943, her Spitfire IIa P7889 veered off the perimeter track and nosed over, due to loss of brake pressure

- 9 Apr 1943, the hood of her Lysander II N1213 blew off after take-off, due to a technical defect

- 16 Jun 1943, another forced landing, this time in Argus EV806, due to petrol starvation caused by a blocked filler cap vent

- 12 Oct 1944, a third forced landing, after the undercarriage of Mosquito XIII HK380 failed to lock 'up'

m. 1950 James Colway, a journalist, and also a pilot

Later, a teacher of ballet, tap and ballroom dancing - "I fly if I have enough money left over, but my dance teaching definitely comes first"

 "On 3 December 1983 a re-enactment of the 1933 flight was staged by Harvie’s nephew, Don Haggitt. Harvie and Trevor Colway (née Hunter) were in Invercargill to greet him. Both had enjoyed careers in aviation: Hunter was one of five New Zealand women to serve in the Air Transport Auxiliary in Britain during the Second World War, while Harvie was chief air accident investigator from 1968 to 1977." - https://nzhistory.govt.nz/first-flight-from-kaitaia-to-bluff

d. 8 May 2002 - Whanganui

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Hunter

Interview here: https://natlib.govt.nz/records/35828591

W.---	Cadet -> Operations Officer	Evelyn [Gertrude or Constance] [Hyam or Higham]
+	b. 25 May 1914, Boston MA	8 Jul-42 to 24 Feb-43

[Although I'm afraid I can't tell you very much about Evelyn, I found out quite a lot about her family!

The story starts in 1878, when a 16 year old Jewish boy, Albert Titlebaum, arrived in Boston, MA, from Russia with his sister (and presumably their parents). He became a naturalised American in 1885, and in 1893 married another Russian Jewish emigree, Fannie, (formerly Miss Touvim or Touwim). He then set up, with J. Charles Touwim and Louis Smolensky, a clothing store, which obviously prospered.

During this time, which Wikipedia describes as "an era of religious separatism and anti-Semitism", Albert and Fannie were prominent among Boston's Jewish community that founded Beth Israel Hospital, specifically aimed at immigrants who only spoke Yiddish and kept a kosher diet. That hospital is now part of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the official hospital of the Red Sox.

Albert was also first president of the Hebrew Ladies Home for the Aged, which started in 1903 with 17 inmates which by 1927 had grown to 180; he was a President and/or Director of the Corporation Tifereth Israel, the Hebrew Free Loan Association, and the Bnoth Israel Sheltering Home.

Albert and Fannie Titlebaum had three daughters; Harriett (b. 1895, who later m. Max Ulim or Wlim), Esther (b. 1897) and Miriam Ruth (b. 1900, who later m. Harold Burroughs).

Their middle daughter, Esther, then became pregnant at the age of 16. She rapidly married (we presume) the father, Henry George Eisenstaht, on 11 February 1914, and our Evelyn was born just over 3 months later. Her recorded name was Evelyn Gertrude Eisenstaht.

Her mother Esther moved to New York to study medicine at Tufts University and became Dr. Esther Tuttle - it looks like this was an anglicization of her surname, not a marriage. She married Nathaniel Charles Greene (born in England to  Russian parents) in 1928 and they had a son James Robert in 1930.

Meanwhile, in 1930, 15-year-old Evelyn was still living with her grandparents and her aunt Miriam, and specified her grandfather (whom she called Albert Tuttle on her ATA application form) as her father. She also started to call herself "Evelyn Constance Tuttle." ]

Evelyn went to Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN and then Columbia University, NYC

She married, on the 12 Feb 1935 in New York, Frederick Benjamin 'Fred' Hyam (sometimes spelt Higham), a British accountant b. 1908 in Bombay, India, "connected with a coal and cement firm" [Later a Captain in the Royal Artillery]

Fred and Evelyn sailed to the UK straight after the marriage and settled in London.

Her mother Esther became quite a well-known physician in New York, and lived at 1111 Park Ave (near Central Park), NYC.

Evelyn sailed back to the US on 4 Nov 1939 to stay with Esther - and to take flying lessons, it seems, because 2 years later she said her flying experience was "51hrs on Cubs, 60 and 65, and Fairchild KR17".

Evelyn then sailed back from Canada to the UK with Helen Harrrison, arriving 25 May 1942, giving her address as 6, Pall Mall, London SW1 and her next of kin as her husband Fred. [As Helen Harrison was recruited by Jackie Cochran, I have therefore assumed that Evelyn was too. But it may have been a coincidence...]

 Postings: 12FPP

[Contract Terminated by ATA 30 Sep 1942 - Unlikely to become an efficient ferry pilot]

Subsequently offered a job as an ATA Operations Officer, commencing 10 October 1942, at £225 per annum, payable monthly... but for some unknown reason she left after 4 months.

Her grandfather Albert Titlebaum and her stepfather Nathaniel Greene both died in 1946.

Evelyn flew BOAC to New York to visit her mother in November 1948, just at the time when Esther was being indicted for defrauding the US Government of $19,606.66 in unpaid taxes for the years 1942-44. Esther denied the charge, and it looks as though she made an arrangement with the IRS as the case doesn't seem to have ever come to court.

In 1961, Esther was present when her son, James Robert Greene, married Janet Jordan, and here they are at the Belle Meade Mansion and Country Club in Nashville, TN:

 Esther, Jim and Janet

 Esther died in 1969.

Evelyn d. 19 Jul 1971 - Brighton

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.---	Cadet	Maisie Evelyn Montgomery Impey
	b. 4 Oct 1914, London	1 Nov 1943 to 2 May 1944

Father: Percy Michael Elijah Impey, mother: Kathleen

Ed. Malvern Girls College; Ville la Belle Neuchateau, Switzerland

prev: FANY, volunteer ambulance driver attached to Polish Forces in Scotland, from 10 May 1941

prev exp: 6hrs in Gypsy Moth

Address in 1943: Wray House, Spur Hill, Parkstone, Dorset

[Resigned]

 m. Oct 1945 in Dorset, Jan M I Wroblewski (who appears to have emigrated to the USA in 1950)

"Dogs stop help for sick woman

A DOZEN ferocious and hungry dogs kept a doctor from reaching their desperately-ill mistress. Two of the dogs guarded her bed. The others — which included Alsatians and a large Labrador — were in the hallway and other rooms. The doctor was called to elderly Mrs. Maisie Wroblewska's cottage in Higher Shaftesbury lane, Blandford, Dorset, after she had not been seen for several days. He called the police and RSPCA.

A policeman forced a bedroom window and one of the two dogs was caught in a special loop on a pole. A vet leaned through the window and gave it a knock-out injection. Then a policeman climbed into the bedroom and caught the other dog. It was also drugged. Mrs. Wroblewska was carried out through the bedroom window and taken to hospital. Later the other dogs were caught and drugged. Last night, Mrs. Wroblewska was transferred to Dorset County Hospital's intensive care unit. She has pneumonia." - Daily Mirror, 24 Dec 1970

 d. Apr 2003 - Dorset

Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):

W.35	Flight Captain	Veronica May Innes
	b. 20 Apr 1917, Cambridge	1 Mar 1941 to 30 Nov 1945

1942

Father: Maj. George Victor d'A Innes (Royal Scots Fusiliers), mother Mary Beatrice [Benyon]

Grew up in India from age 6, (educated: "privately")

RAeC Cert 17,266 (16 Feb 1939); she learnt to fly at Brooklands 

prev. Civil Air Guard, 15 months as a driver for the London (Auxiliary) Ambulance Volunteer Service

prev. exp. 70 hrs

Address in 1939: Queensmead Lodge, King's Road, Windsor, Berks

Postings: 15FPP, 2FPP, 3FPP

 "Sunday tea-dance" in December 1941

 1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

 8 accidents, 3 her fault

- 8 May 1941, in Tiger Moth T6116, she taxied off the runway which was in "bad condition"

- 27 Jan 1942, her Hurricane AG137 nosed over after a poor landing

- 25 Sep 1942, she had a fire in the port carburettor of her Wellington III BK257 after stopping engines

- 12 Feb 1943, taxying "without due care" in Spitfire Vb AD386, her wing hit the side of a low loader trailer

- 21 Jan 1944, the tail wheel of her Seafire IIc MB217 was damaged while taxying

- 13 Mar 1944, the port tyre of her Anson N9920 burst while taxying

- 12 Jul 1944, taxying in Argus II NB604, she ran into a pile of chocks

- 27 Jul 1944, a forced landing in an Anson after failure of the port engine.

She was considered a 'careful, steady' pilot: "An extremely reliable and intelligent pilot whose influence in the [ferry] pool is good. Has progressed well."

She was, however, reckoned to be 'too diffident in manner to really possess any great qualities of leadership. It is her sense of responsibility and interest in the job that makes her a useful Flight Captain".

  The Tatler

m. Dec 1942 Flt. Lt. Gerard Volkersz of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service (divorced 1947)

ATA experience: 1,200 hrs on 60 types - including...

  Aberdeen Press and Journal - 17 Jan 1946

... being the first woman to deliver a Meteor, (EE386) on 15 Sep 1945

Post-WWII, a Pilot Officer in the short-lived (1 Feb 1949 - 1954) Women's Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (WRAFVR), but was not awarded her 'wings' - she later wrote "four [actually five] of the girls qualified, but by that time I was working hard with an Army Co-operation Unit, and had neither the leisure, nor, for that matter, the inclination to follow suit"

Mardi Gething, Patricia Kendall and Vera Strodl were also appointed as Pilot Officers in the WRAFVR at the same time (June 1950)

  Veronica with Sqn-Ldr D R Turley-George DFC - The Tatler, 12 Jul 1950

"A summer cocktail party at Biggin Hill Air Station which, favoured by brilliant weather, was greatly appreciated by the 250 guests" 

She and Freydis Leaf  flew RAF-surplus Tempests to Pakistan, for Mayfair Air Services. She was not taken on when the contract transferred to another company, despite all the other (male) pilots being offered a job, then in 1951 (having gained her commercial pilot's licence, joined Monique Agazarian (also ex-ATA) at Island Air Services.

wrote "The Sky and I" (W.H.Allen 1956); "Her experiences make interesting reading for all who have their heads in the skies"

In 1956, "Members of No. 3618 Fighter Control Unit returned to headquarters in The Goffs on Saturday from 15 days’ annual training at the Royal Air Force station, Sandwich. Adding to the interest this year has been the fact that one the pilots was Mrs Veronica Volkersz. A wartime member of the Air Transport Auxiliary, she has over 3,000 flying hours in her log book and has piloted 60 different types of aircraft." - Eastbourne Gazette - 29 Aug 1956

d. 13 Dec 2000 - Cambridge

IWM interview here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009149

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Volkersz

 Download ATA Pilot Personal Record (.zip file):