Rosemary Rees
Rosemary Rees MBE (born September 23, 1901 in London , England , † March 8, 1994 ibid) was an English ballet dancer and pilot . She flew with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War II and was one of the eight founding pilots of the ATA's women's division.
life and work
Rees was born the first daughter of Sir John David Rees and his wife Mary Catherine Dormer. She attended the ballet school in Chelsea and danced in a dance group that performed in revues around the world, including in Ceylon , China and America . In 1932 she traveled around the world with her brother Richard Rees . On their return they met the son of Gordon Selfridge , who owned an airplane and convinced them to do a test flight. In 1933, after seven hours of instruction, she went on a solo flight and received her private pilot's license. She bought a Miles Hawk Major plane and toured rallies in almost every European country, accumulating over 600 hours of flight time. In December 1938 she volunteered to fly Christmas presents for refugees to Prague . When the war broke out in 1939, she had acquired an instructor license and had already flown more than 90 types of aircraft. A British Overseas Airways Corporation director Gerard d'Erlanger persuaded the government to use skilled civilian pilots who were not eligible for the armed forces to move planes from factories to squadrons. The pilot Pauline Gower selected her with seven other pilots for a women's department and she became one of the first eight so-called ATA girls. In the icy winter of 1939/40 she flew the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth in an open cockpit. In July 1941, women were given permission to fly operational aircraft, as experienced ferry pilots were urgently needed. In 1941 she was appointed deputy flight captain under the command of Captain Margot Gore. She qualified to fly all five classes, from operational aircraft to heavy four-engine bombers. When she left the ATA after six and a half years, she bought a Percival Proctor and received a commercial flight license. She ran her air taxi charter company, Ski Taxi, for five years until the increasing post-war bureaucracy and deterioration in her eyesight eventually ended her flying career. In 1950 she married Sir Philip Harvey Du Cros (1898–1975), became Rosemary, Lady du Cros and lived with him in Parkham, North Devon (England) . She got involved in politics and became chair of the Bideford Area Conservative Association.
Honors
She was awarded a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1945 for her military service. A bus company in Hatfield (Hertfordshire) named eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA. In 2008, the fifteen surviving female ATA members (and 100 surviving male pilots) received a special award from Prime Minister Gordon Brown .
literature
- Lois K. Merry: Women Military Pilots of World War II. 2010, ISBN 978-0-7864-4441-0
Web links
- The extraordinary women who risked their lives during World War Two
- Uno launches 'Tigermoth' buses in Hatfield named after inspirational female aviators
- British Air Transport Auxiliary - The First Eight
- Wedding photo
- Children's photos of Rosemary Theresa, Lady du Cros
- biography
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rees, Rosemary |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rosemary Theresa, Lady Du Cros (married name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English ballet dancer and pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1994 |
| Place of death | London , England |