International Women’s Day 2024 – Deaf Pilot Margaret Gill

Katherine Margaret Gill first deaf pilot in Britain

A celebration of the achievements of Katherine Margaret Gill are long overdue. She stamped her mark on British history in 1935 when she became the first deaf pilot in Britain. Not only the first deaf female to reach for the skies and gain a pilot’s licence, but the first of either sex.
To do this she had to overcome her own disability and, quite possibly, the parental disapproval of her strict Victorian father.
She preferred her second name, thus her story will be told here on Solent Aviatrix as Margaret Gill.
In 1935 the invention of hearing aids was in its infancy. The price of early hearing aids was out of the reach of someone like Margaret, the daughter of a vicar. The very first batteries invented for hearing aids were the size of a house brick and possibly were as heavy as a house brick too. How she managed to overcome her deafness to understand the instructions of her flying instructor, will never be known now. She took her secret to her grave.
However, one clue to her methodology may rest in the skill she learned at a dedicated specialist school and she subsequently taught this skill to children of her same lesser god. She was an expert lip reader. Even so, her flying instructor must have been equally exceptional in teaching her to fly. The mutual trust must have been quite something.
The reason why she first took to the skies may have been because of the extraordinary and unbelievable newspaper stories circulating for years in the 1920s and 1930s, that flying could cure deafness!

Yapton Aero Club pin badge – image courtesy Yapton History Society

 Margaret lived in the Solent area for some of her life, in Southampton and Portsmouth. She learned to fly at Yapton Flying Club, Sussex.
In  January 1939, she hit Portsmouth headlines when Portsmouth Aero Club announced that Margaret had been appointed as the club’s first ‘air hostess.’ This role was not as an airborne hostess but as a ground based host at the club premises, to look after members and guests. Among the other women pilots she met there were Amy Johnson, Jennie Broad and Joy Muntz. All three women became pilots during the Second World War for the Air Transport Auxiliary.
During her education years, Margaret attended the same school as Felicity Bragg, another ATA pilot. Despite all these friendships and connections, Miss Gill remains an enigma.
Margaret’s full story will be told here on Solent Aviatrix in the coming weeks. She was an exceptional woman who had less than ten minutes of fame. Then she slipped into history, her life shrouded in mystery.
An attempt will be made here to clear the mists a little. Her silent world spanned from Southampton to Madras in India, to Chailey Special School in Sussex, to Portsmouth, to Surrey, to obscurity. International Women’s Day 2024 is Margaret Gill’s day.

Joy Muntz first female ATA pilot WW2 casualty

Joy Muntz Davison died in ATA service 8 July 1940. The first woman pilot to die in Second World War

 On 8 July 1940 Joy Muntz Davison became the first female Air Transport Auxiliary pilot to die in service.

  Elsie Joy Muntz

She was a long time friend of Amy Johnson. Amy is sometimes mistakenly believed to have been the first woman pilot to die in the Second World War. Sadly, that fate fell to Joy.  It is also sometimes disputed that Joy had actually started working in the ATA. This confusion is caused because her death occurred whilst on a conversion course for another aircraft. Evidence proves that Joy had in fact already been on active service under the command of her good friend ATA Commandant Pauline Gower. Joy’s death was the first of other ATA women who followed her fate, including Amy herself. Joy was associated with the Solent area through several family connections. As a child she grew up in Winchester. She lived and worked in the Portsmouth area as a pilot during 1938 and 1939, the latter year being spent with Amy flying between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight for P.S.I.O.W.A., on Monospars.  Joy’s life story will be added to this website in the coming months.
Lest we forget.

Picture Perfect Painting of Spartan G-ABYN

There are artists and there are top flight artists. Isle of Wight artist Ivan Berryman is a master of detail who has executed this extraordinary painting of the Spartan bi-plane G-ABYN flying over Queen Victoria’s beloved home of Osborne House, East Cowes, Isle of Wight.
The plane was built by Spartan Aircraft, a subsidiary of Saunders Roe of East Cowes, in 1932.
Ivan was commissioned to paint this picture as part of the fundraising campaign to buy the aircraft and return it to England and the Isle of Wight from New Zealand.
Ivan has incorporated into his painting pilot Pauline Gower and her engineer Dorothy Spicer.

Dorothy Spicer and Pauline Gower with Spartan 3-seater G-ABKK. Copyright Michael Fahie.

Both women are forever associated with Spartan bi-planes, in which they made their names in the 1930s pioneering days of flying circuses. Dorothy trained in secret for one of her aircraft engineering licences at Saunders Roe, East Cowes, and Spartan Aircraft, Somerton Airfield, West Cowes. It was done in secret because women were prevented from gaining advanced qualifications at that time – preserved for men only.
Ivan’s original painting has been reproduced as a limited edition of 250. Each print is individually numbered and signed by the artist. Actual size of the print is 48 x 33 cm (19″ x 13″).
All profits from sale of the prints will go towards to fundraising campaign.
If anyone is interested in having one of these prints, please make enquiries here where you will be given details of how to obtain one.
Alternatively, visit Wight Aviation Museum website if you are not able to actually visit the museum yourself at Sandown Airport. 

Saunders Roe Princess Flying Boat G-ALUN model at Wight Aviation Museum, Sandown Airport.

See more of Ivan Berryman’s artwork on his own website, including other Isle of Wight historic aircraft, painted with the same level of accurate attention to detail. Browse and enjoy.     http://www.ivanberrymandirect.com/print_store.htm

 

International Women’s Day 2023 – Women Were Not Dopes

The old saying is that behind every great man is a woman. Back in the pioneering days of aviation that was certainly true. Gladys Simmonds was the wife of Spartan Aircraft designer and engineer Oliver Simmonds.

Pauline Gower with her Spartan photographed by Thomas Hiett signed by Pauline. Courtesy of Christopher Hiett

Oliver left the employment of Supermarine in Southampton in 1928 to start his own company, Simmonds Aircraft Ltd. He based himself in Warsash and built the fuselage of a prototype Spartan inside his house. In another room, Gladys stitched together the fabric for the interchangeable wings. No easy job. 

This fabric had to be coated with dope, a vanish applied to the cloth surface to strengthen it and keep it airtight. The fumes from this varnish, especially in an enclosed room, could have a stupefying effect.

Oliver was initially successful with his light aircraft design. When his business became financially unviable in 1931 he sold out to Whitehall Securities and Spartan aircraft production moved across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. The new manufacturing site was at Northwood, Cowes, with the design office in East Cowes at Saunders Roe (SARO). Oliver and Gladys were no longer involved in the business.

One man who stayed with Spartan production was Thomas Hiett, Oliver’s foreman. Thomas had joined Oliver in 1928 from Supermarine. In 1931 Hiett moved to Cowes with his family, to head up production there and stayed with it until the final days of Spartan Aircraft. He saw the very last Spartan completed. Hiett was a keen photographer. He took many snaps of Spartan planes he worked on and flew in, including the historic image (above) taken at Cowes of Pauline Gower with her Spartan 3 Seater. 

Spartan Aircraft staff Fred Overton, Basil Brown, Maude Hodder, Mr Vance, Mabel Knight. Image taken by Thomas Hiett. Courtesy Christopher Hiett

Thankfully, he also recorded for posterity some of the men and women who were his workforce. That is how we now know the names of two, previously invisible, women who applied the varnish to Spartan wings during the SARO production years. Maude Hodder and Mabel Knight are pictured here with Fred Overton, Basil Brown and Mr. Vance.

Spartan ZK-ARH

Hiett’s grandson Christopher has kept safe Thomas’s photograph album. A copy of this album will be donated to Wight Aviation Museum, along with a written record of Spartan production compiled by Christopher’s father Thomas junior. Thanks are due to Christopher for his kind offer to the museum. This pictorial and written record will tell the Spartan story, along side Spartan II Three Seater G-ABYN, seen here with New Zealand registration ZK-ARH and flown by owner Rod Hall Jones.

Invariably, during the early aviation years, it was more often women who worked in the aircraft dope shops, including SARO Spartan. In Portsmouth, women worked for the Airspeed aviation company. It is on record that men, who worked in the production sheds, laughed at the Airspeed girls who had breathed in too many fumes from the varnish. The dizziness had made them ‘dopey.’

Dopes, they were not. They were earning their own wage and during the war years they were proud to ‘do their bit.’ Such women also worked at Saunders Roe in the Sea Otter workshops at Osborne, East Cowes. Whether lengthy exposure to all those varnish fumes had any long term, ill health effects can never now be fully assessed. Anecdotally, it has been suggested that maybe it did. 

Behind every great aircraft is a great number of women who played their part, one way and another, just like Gladys Simmonds, Maude Hodder and Mabel Knight.

Pauline Gower Pioneering Leader of the Spitfire Women

 A talk on the life of Pauline Gower will be given, at the RAFMuseum on International Women’s Day 8 March, by Alison Hill. Click on this link for more information. Those who attend the talk get the opportunity to sit in a Spitfire.

Saving Amy and 2022 Round Up

Amy Johnson 1930. Source wikimedia commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amy_Johnson_(Our_Generation,_1938).jpg

On 5 January 1941 Amy Johnson died when she was ferrying an Airspeed Oxford from Blackpool. It was believed the aircraft had run out of fuel and she ditched into the sea off Herne Bay. Attempts were made to save her but, alas, those going to her rescue failed to reach her in time.

Such is the enduring enigma that is Amy and the power she still has to inspire interest in the pioneering years of British aviation, an ambitious ‘Saving Amy Project’ was launched during the 2020’s pandemic lock-downs. An enthusiastic band of men formed together to work on the restoration of Airspeed Oxford Mk.V EB518 at Hangar 42, Blackpool Airport.

Airspeed Oxford aircraft at Portsmouth Airport 1930s

The Airspeed company was based at Portsmouth Airport. One of the first shareholders and designers at Airspeed was Nevil Shute Norway, a friend of Amy. At one time Amy was also an Airspeed shareholder. In 1939 she was working Portsmouth, Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation as a commercial pilot. The next door neighbour on the airfield was Airspeed. 

So there is local interest in the Solent area in seeing the ‘Saving Amy’ restoration project reach completion.

Click on this link to follow the progress being made at Hangar 42.

Click on this link to learn more about Amy’s happier time when she was living in Cosham and working at Portsmouth Airport.

As a new year begins, a round up of last year’s news from the last quarter follows below:

Spartan ZK-ARH (New Zealand registration). Previously registered in the UK as G-ABYN.

The ‘Spartan Home to UK’ project has secured most of the purchase money. Fundraising for the remaining amount will start later this month. It will be coming home! Stay signed up to Solent Aviatrix for updates on progress on this Spartan project.
Follow this link to learn more about Spartan G-ABYN.

Wight Aviation Museum New Exhibit 2023

 There is something mysterious hidden under large tarpaulin wraps at Wight Aviation Museum? What could it be? All will be revealed in the spring, at the Easter re-opening of WAM, when a new acquisition will be unveiled.

The saddest news of the year was the tragic loss of Carolyn Grace, Britain’s only practising female Spitfire pilot of recent years. Carolyn died, while on a family holiday in Australia, in a car accident near Sydney.

Jackie Moggridge in ATA uniform with Carolyn Grace and Spitfire

Some years ago she took up wartime Spitfire Girl Jackie Moggridge in the Grace Spitfire. Thanks are due to Jackie’s daughter, Candy Adkins, for sharing these photos of Carolyn and Jackie with the Spitfire. Rest in peace Carolyn.

Jackie Moggridge with Carolyn Grace on Spitfire

Spartan Home to UK Campaign

Spartan II 3-seater ZK-ARH flown by owner Rod Hall-Jones

The campaign to buy for Great Britain the last 3-seater Spartan bi-plane, which is still flying, and to get it back to the Isle of Wight where it was manufactured, started as long ago as 2015. At that time there was no aero museum on the Isle of Wight. Seven years later, things have changed. Wight Aviation Museum was born and is gaining momentum with new exhibits being added, year on year.

Wight Aviation Museum – WAM – of Sandown Airfield, Isle of Wight, England

The WAM logo was inspired by Spartan Aircraft of Cowes.

The Spartan, though, still remains in New Zealand, where the owner Rod Hall-Jones, has waited patiently for funding to become available to buy his historic aircraft for Britain and the Isle of Wight. Time has almost run out and Rod cannot delay much longer. He needs to sell very soon.  If it is to be saved for the nation, the money must be found urgently.

Spartan II 3-seater EI-ABU before it became ZK-ARH. The wreck found in Ireland.

The story of how Spartan G-ABYN (Gabby) moved from Cowes to Heston (London), to Ireland, to Hampshire UK and on to New Zealand, where it was fully restored from a near wreck, is little short of a flying miracle. There, she graces the South Island fiordland skies as ZK-ARH.

To read the bi-plane’s history and marvel at what can only be described as a true labour of love and one of restoration dedication, download this document here Solent Aviatrix Spartan G-ABYN presentation V4
It also contains an explanation on Solent Aviatrix website involvement in asking Rod Hall-Jones to delay selling his Spartan elsewhere in the world.

You’ll Never Make It. A New Zealand Pilot’s Story. Image: R. Hall-Jones

‘You’ll Never Make It’ is the title of Rod’s autobiography. His life story reads more like adventure fiction, just waiting to be filmed as an action movie. Movie makers are you reading this? Follow this link for details on Rod’s book You’ll Never Make It.

It is to be hoped that the book’s title will not be prophetic of this Spartan Home To UK Campaign. If you would like to be part of this campaign or can help in any way, please get in touch via the Contact Us page.

Click on this link for more information about G-ABYN.

Pauline Gower and Dorothy Spicer with Spartan G-ABKK ‘Helen of Troy’. Copyright Michael Fahie.

Click on this link to learn about the first female fully qualified ground engineer in the world, Dorothy Spicer, who trained at Spartan Aircraft of Somerton, Cowes, at a time when women were banned from gaining advanced aviation engineering licences. Dorothy was the Spartan engineer to pilot Pauline Gower when they were a flying business partnership in the 1930s, first with the now legendary flying circuses, then later as an independent business called ‘Air Trips.’ The two women owned two Spartans during the 1930s, setting records for the number of passengers flown and the number of flying hours clocked up in Pauline’s log books. Keeping the planes airworthy was Dorothy’s job.
The names Gower, Spicer, Spartan go hand in hand. Spartan Aircraft was a subsidiary of Saunders-Roe (SARO) of Cowes. Without the permission of SARO’s top managers, Dorothy would never have been allowed to study for her Spartan construction and testing licence. That fact alone is truly remarkable. Why? The Isle of Wight is sometimes mocked for being behind the times (some people say this is part of its charm) and yet SARO and the Wight led the world in 1934, by trail-blazing Dorothy Spicer’s engineering skills.
How did she and SARO do it? Read their autobiography by clicking on this link to a free download of their Women With Wings book.
When the Second World War started Pauline Gower campaigned for women to be allowed to become ferry pilots, to serve the R.A.F. in a civilian capacity. In 1940 Pauline won the argument and she became female leader of the women’s section of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). The rest is history. One of Pauline’s pilots was Mary Wilkins Ellis. Mary’s flying life is a major exhibit at Wight Aviation Museum.  You could say, it all started with a Spartan!

Schneider Trophy 90 – British Supermarine 1931 Triumph

Ninety years ago, on the 13 September weekend, in the midst of the Great Depression, Ryde, Isle of Wight, played host to the BBC and aviation enthusiasts when the Jacques Schneider Seaplane Trophy Contest took place. The radio commentary was broadcast from the pier head, which was thronged with newspaper reporters and spectators. Hundreds more Islanders watched from the shore. Huge crowds gathered on the opposite mainland beaches.

In the Solent, at anchor, was the transatlantic White Star liner ‘Homeric’ which served as the Royal Aero Club official ship. Also aboard were members of Royal Aeronautical Society, Royal Air Force Club, Air League, Society of British Aircraft Constructors, and Association of Light Aeroplane Clubs. These spectators, desperate for some cheer at a time of national gloom, bought ‘special event’ passenger tickets for the weekend. Aboard ‘Homeric’ they enjoyed the contest in luxury, first the preliminary test flights and then the actual race, all the time waited on by stewards and served fine food and drink.

Yet all of it almost never happened. The 1931 event took place during one of the worst years of the Depression. The Labour Government declined to sponsor the British team in their Schneider endeavour, even though a win could have helped boost the nation’s aeroplane exports.

It was Lady Houston who stepped in to save the day. A keen supporter of British aviation, she provided some of her private wealth. Without her sponsorship the UK victory, still celebrated and remembered with pride decades later, would not have happened.

Thus the race went ahead and three nations competed – Great Britain, France and Italy. Sadly, to emphasize the dangers of float plane racing, all three nations each mourned the lost of a team pilot during test flights only weeks before the race. The British pilot who died was Jerry Brinton. Tragically, he crashed in the team’s sister plane.

There was great interest in this race in America. There the newspapers reported that the British pilots had undergone a rigid medical regime. “The medical research staff of the Air Ministry has been keeping an exceedingly close watch on the high-speed team. The flyers’ diet has been carefully worked out and for weeks they have denied themselves stimulants or tobacco.”

Britain’s entry, the Southampton based Supermarine SB6, had a design and engineering team led by R. J. Mitchell. He later designed Britain’s iconic Spitfire. Sqd. Ldr. A. H. Orlebar led the High Speed Flight team of pilots. On the contest day the pilot was Flt. Lt. J. N. Boothman.

The triangular course had a southern turning point off St. Helens, Isle of Wight. The western turning point was west of Ryde pier (Ryde Middle), and the 3rd point of the triangle was West Wittering, near Chichester. The race comprised seven laps, a total of 217 miles.

Spectators on the northern side of the Solent lined the Portsmouth, Southsea, Gosport and Lee-on-the-Solent shorelines in Hampshire, also the West Wittering beaches in Sussex.  Isle of Wight ferries were halted mid-Solent for the duration and gave passengers an unexpected viewing.

1930s Ryde Paddle Steamer nearing Southsea

Boothman covered the 1st lap in 5 mins 26 secs, 343 mph. Reporters marvelled at his precision in turning at exactly the same point over Ryde pier for the next 4 laps.

The 6th lap brought even greater excitement to spectators. A reporter noticed, “the first serious deviation from the regularity with which Boothman had been crossing Ryde pier. This time he flew right over the top of the pier house. Timekeepers on its summit must have had a real close-up view of the bottoms of his floats. The whole pier, constructed to carry a double railway line and double tram line, seemed to vibrate to the sound waves emitted by the Rolls Royce engine.

On this lap the turn round Ryde Middle pylon was the tightest and best of all the turns during the whole race. The 7th and last lap started with a crossing of Ryde Pier inland of the pier house, for which the timekeepers were doubtless very thankful.”

Boothman circumvented Ryde Middle for the final time, straighten out and opened his throttle as he set his course for the pier, the finishing line. A great cheer went up when he crossed the line. Steamers sounded their sirens, hats were thrown up, deckchairs and hankies waved in the air at a British victory in the last ever Schneider contest. The honours fell to the man who had flown so well to win the trophy to keep for all time.

R.A.F. pilot Boothman, unknown to the public before the race, went down in history from 13 September 1931 as one of Britain’s great pilots.

The crowds were given more to cheer when team pilot Flt. Lt. G. H. Stainforth flew the SB6 to a world speed record with an average of 379 mph., and confirmed Britain’s supremacy. Third team pilot Flt. Off. L. S. Snaith thrilled onlookers with a stunt flying display in a Fairey Firefly.

Lady Houston, who had sponsored the High Speed Flight team, arrived in Cowes on the Isle of Wight that evening on her yacht ‘Liberty.’ At the Royal Yacht Squadron she met Sqd. Ldr. Orlebar and his team. Next day they joined her for a celebratory lunch aboard ‘Liberty.’

Mitchell, Stainforth, Boothman – their names are recorded in history books but Mitchell’s engineers, who contributed so much, remain nameless and unrecognised.

In tribute to these ‘invisibles’ the grandson of S6B engineer Reginald Darker has contributed this photo signed by the pilots. Reginald is in the water, far side of the plane.

Dorothy Spicer, Britain’s most qualified female aircraft engineer in the 1930s, described ground engineers as, ‘the ants of the engineering world who remain on the ground and while the pilots soar above.’ The pilots received all the glory, the engineers largely forgotten.

Supermarine SB6 Schneider Trophy winner 1931 aircraft. Image courtesy of Stephen Mosley

To celebrate the supreme design of SB6, aviation artist and engineer Stephen Mosley has shared with Solent Aviatrix this print of the superb artwork by Coulson (see above) and Stephen’s own photo of the seaplane. 

 

Southampton’s Spitfire Flight Shed under threat of demolition

Please support this petition by signing and then circulate to all your friends who you think will add their voice to this campaign. Read the message below from Chair of Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust which explains what is planned. A vital part of Britain’s aviation heritage is under threat of demolition.

A message from Alan Matlock;
If “THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SPITFIRE-RELATED BUILDING IN EXISTENCE” was under threat of demolition, what would you do?
You can start by reading about what’s being proposed for the original Spitfire Flight Shed and signing this petition posted by Spitfire Makers.
This is the link to take you there to sign:    http://chng.it/bHg7rcr2Wr
Save the original Spitfire Flight Shed from demolition.
Thank you.
Alan Matlock – Chair of the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust.
You can add more support via social media: Website: http://www.spitfiremakers.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spitfiremakers
Email: spitfiremakers@btinternet.com

Spitfire Makers logo

Spitfire Spit And Polish Good News

Lots of good news during Armed Forces Week 2021. Four lots of good news in fact.

Spitfire P7370 – Southampton Roundel – Southwick Revival 2018. Image copyright Anne Grant.

Good news No.1. – The opportunity for a job of a lifetime is awaiting a few lucky engineers – the chance to work in a Spitfire workshop. If you saw ‘Guy Martin’s Spitfire’ on TV you will know he spent some time at Airframe Assemblies at Sandown Airport. Another regular visitor was their neighbour, Spitfire Girl Mary Ellis. Its also cheek by jowl with Wight Aviation Museum.
This week the repair workshop is advertising for sheet metal workers and airframe fitters to work on Spitfires and other warbirds. Want this rare job? Here is their link:  Airframe Assemblies

Speaking of Spitfire workers, good news No.2. – That marvellous band of volunteers who have been working hard in recent years to record the hidden history of Southampton’s secret Spitfire makers during the Second World War, have polished up their website with a great new design. Do follow this link to their latest news at Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust.

Spitfire Makers logo

Good news No.3 – is about lockdown super spit and polishers, Orca Window Cleaners, who did a whale of a voluntary job earlier this year. With most business premises shut during covid restrictions, their cleaning services were not in demand. Dan Huxley and Matthew Couch did a bit of sky blue thinking. They secretly decided to apply their telescopic window cleaning poles at the Southampton airport roundabout.
The Spitfire replica, erected in 2004, had become grimy and in need of a clean up. It took several hours due to the challenge of reaching some parts of the plane from ground level, like the upper side of the wings. Well done Orca – ground crew with a difference!

Good news No.4 – is from Southwick Revival. Cancelled in 2021 due to lockdown restrictions, they nonetheless have tried to continue with their charitable work for SSAFA by selling raffle tickets. First prize is a 30 minute flight, over to the Isle of Wight and to the Needles, in a Spitfire from Lee on Solent Airport. Second prize is a ‘flight’ in a Spitfire simulator. Follow this link to Southwick Revival Spitfire Draw.
Good luck!

International Women’s Month Jewel In The Aviatrix Crown

Jackie Moggridge Sweetheart Brooch in support of Royal British Legion. Brooch Certificate.

Throughout 2020 many charities have struggled to raise funds during the pandemic lock down. The Royal British Legion is one charity that has put their creative minds to work and today are launching a Sweetheart Brooch.

This jewel is inspired by Jackie Moggridge and chosen for International Women’s Month 2021. It is being sold to raise money to help support RBL veterans. The pretty design encapsulates Jackie’s personality, she really was a sweetheart.

Jackie Moggridge Sweetheart Brooch International Women’s Month 2021

Jackie’s daughter Candy Adkins says, “I think it is great. Not only is it raising money for the Royal British Legion but it is truly feminine and encourages women to be drawn into the story. She would have loved helping to inspire women to fly and helping a good cause too.”

Jackie Moggridge Sweetheart Brooch presentation box.

Click on this link to Jackie Moggridge page to learn more about this remarkable woman.

Click on this link to go to the Royal British Legion website to buy this brooch for your sweetheart or simply to treat yourself.