Lectures

6th October 2021: Mary Ellis – Spitfire Girl

On Wednesday 6th October 2021 Wye Historical Society started the 2021/22 season by welcoming Melody Foreman, who spoke to us about Mary Ellis – Spitfire Girl. Born in 1917 in Oxfordshire, Mary was fascinated by aircraft from a young age. At age twelve she was taken to Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus, where for 5 shillings she was allowed to be a passenger in a two-seater plane. At 14 she was skipping school to go to the airfield and was soon allowed flying lessons. Her heroine was Mrs Victor Bruce whose catchphrase was "I like anything fast and furious." In 1937 Mary gained her pilot's licence and flew a plane called a Swallow. On the outbreak of war, civil aviation stopped.

Gerald d'Erlanger, director of BOAC, suggested a service for ferrying planes where they needed to be and in August 1939 the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was founded. Initially this was manned by injured and older servicemen. Pauline Gower from Tunbridge Wells wanted to join the ATA but d'Erlanger declined her offer, as the RAF considered that women would break the aircraft. She began lobbying politicians, and the RAF eventually backed down. Pauline recruited twelve women pilots, including Winifred Crossley, the first woman to fly a Hurricane, and Joan Hughes, who became a stunt pilot in the 1960s. They were based at Hamble, near Southampton. Originally the women had to fly in a skirt but eventually were allowed trousers. In October 1941 Pauline appealed for more women pilots and Mary applied, doing a circuit in a Tiger Moth to demonstrate her skills. At the age of 24 Mary got her wings, and by 1942 there were between sixty and seventy women. They eventually got permission to fly fighters – Hurricanes and Spitfires – and were paid the same as men. They gained a lot of media attention, but not all good: the editor of an aeroplane magazine was disgusted women were allowed.

Mary was very busy flying 5-6 aircraft a day; her favourite was a Mk V Spitfire. Her logbook recorded 400 Spitfire journeys and seventy types of aircraft in total. Once, along the south coast, she met a Messerschmitt and tried to wave it away. Thankfully it didn't shoot at her (women were not allowed to use the guns and many hadn’t been fitted with them yet), possibly because the pilot was astonished to see a woman flying. It was a dangerous business; one friend was killed when her Mosquito crashed and another colleague ran into Mary’s plane on the runway and tore the wing off. One day the engine of a Fairchild Argus failed and Mary had to land in a field of cows; some Royal Marines saw what happened and came to her rescue. In 1944 on delivering a Wellington Bomber the ground crew didn’t believe she was the pilot and ran into the plane looking for the men! Mary’s least favourite plane was the Walrus, a large sea-plane which was "a pig to fly". A friend was badly injured in one in front of her but Mary had to carry on and deliver hers, but it finally made her realise the danger she was in.

Post-war, Mary continued with the RAF for three months, flying the Gloster Meteor, but then went back to her father's farm. She got a job as a chauffeur pilot and then became Airport Manager at Sandown on the Isle of Wight, later Managing Director. She married in 1962, and died in 2018, aged 101. In her last year she was able to take part in the 100th anniversary celebrations of the RAF, and there was a spitfire flypast at her memorial.

Ellie Morris