Lilian Bader

Lilian Bader (born February 18, 1918 in Liverpool , † March 13, 2015 in Dorset ) was a British aircraftwoman and teacher. She was one of the first black women to work in the British armed forces . Three generations of her family served in the British armed forces until the end of the 20th century.

Life

Bader was the daughter of Marcus Bailey, a Barbados merchant seaman and a British born mother of Irish parents. Her father served in the Royal Navy from 1914 until the end of the war . She and her two older brothers were orphaned by an unknown incident at the age of nine in 1917. She joined a monastery , to which she belonged until she was 20, as no one was willing to hire her for any work. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II , she was accepted as a canteen assistant with the Navy Army and Air Force Institutes ( NAAFI ) at Catterick Camp in Yorkshire and outside the monastery. However, due to the fact that her father was born outside the UK, she was released. In January 1940 she was working on a Royal Air Force (RAF) Topcliffe farm. In 1941 she was hired by the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She began a twelve-week training course in which she was qualified for instrument repair. After passing several exams, she graduated as First Class Airwoman and was soon in Shropshire , where she was promoted to Chief Aircraftwoman based on her skills. In 1943 she married the British-born black soldier Ramsay Bader. He was a tank driver who served in the 147th Field Regiment (Essex Yeomanry) of the Royal Artillery. When she was expecting a child, she was discharged in February 1944. She had two sons and when they grew up she studied at London University . She earned a Bachelor of Arts and taught as a teacher. Her youngest son flew helicopters in the Royal Navy and later became an airline pilot . In 1989 her memoir "Together - Lilian Bader: Wartime Memoirs of a WAAF 1939-1944" was published by the Imperial War Museum . In 2018, The Voice newspaper listed her alongside Kathleen Wrasama , Olive Morris , Connie Mark , Fanny Eaton , Diane Abbott , Margaret Busby and Mary Seacole on the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage .

Web links

• Powerful Northern Women
• Technician Leading Aircraftwoman Lilian Bader
• Black History Month Firsts: Lilian Bader
• Leading Aircraftwoman in the WAAF and one of the first black women to join the British Armed Forces
• Question 100: The Black Women Who Changed British History
• Short biography
• Photo gallery