Nice piece in the Telegraph.
”Mary Ellis is 98 and bright as a button. When she was at school she was hopeless at hockey and so she opted for another sporting endeavour: she learnt to fly. It was at an air show in Hendon that she was bitten by the bug, after persuading her father to let her take a pleasure flight in an Avro 504. “From that moment I was hooked,” said Mary. She had been awarded her flying licence by the time she was 16. That in itself is remarkable, but it was only the beginning of Mary’s story, for in 1941 she heard an appeal on the radio by the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) for women pilots. She applied, took a flying test and was accepted into their ranks.”………..
By: Chad Veich - 12th March 2015 at 03:32
A fantastic story about a fantastic person from a generation that produced an extraordinary number of fantastic individuals.
By: Consul - 11th March 2015 at 22:52
Here she was five years back being taken for a back-seat ride in the Grace Spitfire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whmh_QKGosQ
By: chumpy - 11th March 2015 at 19:59
I consider myself very privileged to have met Mary and chatted to her on several occasions, often see her whilst driving to and from work.
Just last week she was outside doing a spot of gardening, she had in fact just sawn off a fairly decent sized branch from a tree, was in the process of yanking it out of the undergrowth.
Was going to stop to see if she needed a hand, but thought better of it, she is still a very independent person..probably would of wacked me with it!
An amazing lady and an inspiration to me.
By: wieesso - 11th March 2015 at 17:57
Simply amazing!
By: DazDaMan - 11th March 2015 at 14:52
Seconded!
By: GliderSpit - 11th March 2015 at 14:43
Wow!
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March 11, 2015 at 9:16 am