Isn’t it typical – I start this blog full of good intentions and then work gets in the way.
However, I have been playing with a new database at Ancestry – the Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates.
The Royal Aero Club was founded in 1901 and from 1910 issued Aviators Certificates, internationally recognised under the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. The Club was, and still is, responsible for control of all private and sporting flying in the UK.
This database contains about 28,000 index cards and 34 photograph albums of aviators who were issued with their flying licences (certificates) by the Royal Aero Club from 1910-1950. These included the first military and naval personnel to become pilots. The original records are now held by the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, London.
As I was playing, I noticed one or two women’s names and started to wonder if any of these early female aviators were Scottish. It turns out that there were 16 of them:
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Miss Elizabeth Ann Roche Anderson, born 1908 Aug 18 in Dullatur
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Miss Winifred Joyce Drinkwater, born 1913 Apr 11 in Waterfoot
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Isabel Clare Drummond, born 1915 Dec 12 in Ardrossan
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Miss Ivy Barbara Mary Forsyth, born 1905 Apr 24 in Inverness
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Mary Coutts Gordon, born 1906 Oct 13 in St Andrews
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Sheila MacDonald Green, born 1901 Feb 15 in Elgin
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Maie Hardie, born 1893 Jan 14 in Kirkaldy
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Mrs Eleanor Amalie Harper-Gow, born 1894 Jun 21 in Cupar
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Miss Janet Hendry, born 1906 Oct 23 in Ardrossan,
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Marjorie Emily Meredith Hunter, born 1908 Jun 22 in Kilmalcolm
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Dorothy Millicent Kay, born 1911 Jan 3 in Edinburgh
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The Hon Miss Mildred Katherine Leith, born 1894 Mar 22 in St Andrews
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Mrs Henrietta Learmont MacEwan, born 1897 Jun 21 in Hurlet
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Mrs Margaret Helen Saunders, born 1901 Jun 30 in Montrose
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Shaw Annie Gillespie 1904 May 28 Uddingston
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Mrs Mora Morton Weir, born 1896 Jan 16 in Tayport, Fife
and there’s photos of 12 of them.
Frustratingly, not one of then has an entry in either the Dictionary of National Biography or in Who Was Who.
Sheena
Nice work… Henrietta Learmont MacEwan nee Paterson was married to Malcolm MacEwan (a surgeon) in Eastwood, 1927.
She was a medical practitioner when she married: I’m not sure if she continued to practice afterwards.
How do you know Henrietta and Malcolm MacEwan. Would you be able to contact me with details of their children as I am very interested in their
life and family? Thank you
Henrietta Learmont MacEwan was my mother. She continued to practice for
many years. She died on 12th Feb. 1964.
Hi Stewart
Thanks for commenting – was she an ancestor of yours?
I suppose you could call her marriage a loose form of “keeping it in the family” as I notice from the 1901 census on Ancestry that her father was a sanitary inspector in Glasgow.
I had another look at her aviators’ certificate and see that when she got the certificate in 1932 she was living in Ipswich.
I suppose you could trace her career through the medical directories.
Sheena
Have you found out anything more about Henrietta and Malcolm MacEwan? I would be keen to learn more…. Thank you
Dear Ann
I think you probably have all the answers now, thanks to a wonderful piece of
detective work. Hope to meet you sometime.
Love from ( Uncle! ) Douglas
Hello Douglas!
Yes, much is clear now – absolutely fascinating on many levels and a great deal to assimilate. Exciting discoveries and best to take small steps. Along the way, I do look forward to meeting you.
Kind regards and thanks for all your help,
Ann
Mora Weir was my great great aunt and was married to James Weir who was an Air Commodore serving with the RFC. They were an amazing couple. Family lore is that she demonstrated the parachute to the Russian Army in WW1 – he flew, she jumped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_George_Weir
What date did she get her license?