"Mary Ellis - ATA Ferry Pilot" Topic

Mary Ellis MBE, has died at the age of 101.

She was the last of the 168 female members of the Air Transport Auxiliary, a WW2 organisation formed in the UK to fly new aircraft from their factories to combat units.

She made more than 1,000 delivery trips in 76 different aircraft including in her total over 400 Spitfires.

ATA Pilots flew alone, in all weathers and at night and was the first group to give women equality in wartime service – they even got paid the same! Fifteen of them were killed on active duty.

Her favourite story was that on delivering a Wellington Bomber, staff at the Airfield asked her to get the Pilot to sign in. When she said she was the Pilot they refused to believe her until after they had the airplane searched and found no one else on board!

RIP, Ms. Ellis, and thank you for your service!

For a great novel which features a pilot of the ATA, I recommend Code Name Verity. (It's a great book to share with any young women in your life, ages 15+, even if they're not history buffs. It's shelved as Young Adult, but any adult readers will appreciate it. YA is more a marketing ploy than anything else.)

RIP, Ma'am and THANKS !

RIP