Jackie Moggridge – Sad Day

I have access to the full transcript of an interview Jackie gave to the IWM’s Sound Archive a few years back, and it makes interesting, lively, heart warming and funny reading…Must dig it out and have another read (if I can post some extracts here I will, but might not be able to due to copyright reasons)

Rest in peace Jackie

Becka

🙁

I remember seeing the Grace Spitfire video “Absolute Heaven” with Carolyn and Jackie partaking of some of the above in ‘407.

Very sad.

A very special Lady,

God Bless

That Captain Moggridge was a very lucky chap, I’d say.

RIP, Transall.

An amazing woman, she will be sorley missed and I hope that she will not be forgotten. A truely rare woman.:( RIP

What an incredible lady. Can’t imagine many of today’s breed doing what she did.

May she rest in peace. 🙁

Jackie Moggridge.

A lovely lovely lady. Mad as a ‘hatter’ with wonderful stories to tell of her adventures ferrying Spitfires from Israel to Burma.

Quite a stunner as well.

I am smiling as I recall her escapades of back seat riding with Carolyn Grace in ML407.

Rest in peace.

Mark

Taken from the Western Daily Press on 10 January 2004

Jackie Moggridge, a daring wartime pilot who broke the mould, earning the admiration and respect of all who knew her along the way, has died at the age of 81.

As a teenage flying ace – dubbed an ‘Aviatrix’ – she was one of only a handful of Britain’s female flyers and took to the skies delivering hundreds of fighter planes, including Spitfires and Mosquitoes, to RAF squadrons.

The missions were all the more perilous, being made without instruments or weapons.

Mother-of-two Jackie died following a short illness at Musgrove Hospital in Taunton, the town where she had lived for 57 years.

An incredible war record earned Jackie a Coronation Medal from the Queen, and a war commendation from then Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

Jackie, born Delores Sourar in South Africa, was a pioneer who helped change the role of women in the world. A petite and beautiful young woman, she overcame chauvinism to make a historic mark on the forces.

Her role was to deliver aircraft for the Air Transport Auxiliary.

“The men didn’t like it. There were all these strapping six-footers and then me, I was only seven stone and very skinny,” she recalled.

“They all said I looked about 12 and asked me what a schoolgirl was doing flying a plane.” Her passion for flying was sparked despite overcoming vertigo.

“I was a great big sissy. I wouldn’t even climb a ladder. Then I decided to do a parachute jump and I was the first woman to do one in South Africa. Then I came to England to become a professional pilot.” Her maiden flight was no picnic.

“It didn’t start well,” she said. “I was violently sick the first time I went up. But my guardian angel kept me safe in my test flight and I just went from there.” Jackie recalled in her 1959 biography Woman Pilot, that sometimes she ‘flew by the seat of her pants’.

But she loved being airborne, and in peacetime she quickly gained her commercial pilot’s licence, and flew for 40 more years.

Jackie’s wartime career saw her become Britain’s most prolific female flyer, and she met her future husband, Reginald Moggridge while on duty in Essex.

They were married at St George’s Roman Catholic Church, Taunton, his home town, in 1946.

Her younger daughter Candy said yesterday that her mother was an extraordinary person who will be missed by everyone who knew her.

She said: “She had a childlike innocence about her. She just had a passion for life and believed she could do anything she set her mind to. She was very warm, and incredibly loving. She also had great faith. If anything went wrong with the plane, or whatever, she would pray.” Candy, who is a teacher, said her mother often told wonderful stories about her wartime antics.

She used her chocolate rations – pilots were given supplies to stave off hunger on long flights – to pass love letters to her husband-to-be.

Jackie would wrap the missives around the bar and, in a romantic flypast, drop the package from her Spitfire window over the barracks where Reg was stationed.

The letters always found their way to Captain Moggridge, whose family ran the building firm TH Moggridge in Taunton.

Ingeniously, Jackie told the messenger to eat the chocolate on condition they kindly delivered the note.

Candy, who has two children, 11-year-old Ashleigh and Lara, five, said Jackie was the perfect mother.

“She just made growing up magical. Everything was an occasion and everything was beautifully done.

“She loved singing and dancing and was in pantomimes and the operatic society for years. She absolutely made family life.” Jackie’s niece Barbara Stokes recalled the ‘marvellous enthusiasm’ of her aunt.

“Second to her family, flying was the great love of her life. She was very proud of her wartime involvement and told wonderful stories. I find her achievements incredible.” Fellow Spitfire pilot Peter May, a former mayor of Taunton and best man at Jackie and Reg’s wedding said last night: “Jackie was quite unique and she was a pioneer. She was teetotal, didn’t smoke and when I took her out the night before the wedding, we ended up sitting in the car eating apples.

“She will be greatly missed. She was a very remarkable woman.” Jackie was widowed in 2000. Her elder daughter Jill was last night flying back from America after hearing of her mother’s death.

The funeral takes place on January 16 at St George’s Roman Catholic Church, Billetfield Road, Taunton at a time yet to be arranged.

Yes please.

Bravery should never be allowed to fade away unmarked 🙁

Moggy