Eleanor Lettice Curtis (1st February 1915 – 21st July 2014) came from a privileged background.
Curtis was raised in Denbury, near Newton Abbot in Devon, the 4th of 7 children whose father was Walter Septimus Curtis (born 1871) of Denbury House, Lord of the Manor of Denbury, a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn. After attending West Country Boarding Schools from the age of 6, she went to the newly founded Girls’ Public School Benenden, in Kent, and in 1933 St Hilda’s College, Oxford. In addition to Studying Mathematics, she was Captain of the University Women’s Lawn Tennis & Fencing Teams. She also played Lacrosse for the University. Had she known it was feasible, she would have read Engineering instead; she recalled that “Meccano was my favourite Toy”. A Triple Blue, she was named a “Woman of the Year” and an “Isis Idol” by the Student Magazine
Career opportunities for Female Graduates in 1937 were sparse, but when Motoring past Haldon Airfield in Devon in her Lancia Augusta, Curtis, after observing a Plane Landing, fell into conversation with its Pilot. Could Women, she asked, be Aviators? A £100 Bequest from her Grandmother funded her Flying Training. She first learned how to manoeuvre a Plane at the Yapton Flying Club, which was located near Chichester at that time. After being Schooled with the basics of Flight, Lettice Curtis flew an additional 100-hrs alone just so she could obtain her Commercial B License in 1938. Amazingly, given her later contribution to Aviation, Lettice Curtis’s 1st Report noted that she was far too nervous ever to become a Pilot. CL Air Survey Co Ltd, London SW1 (based Great West Aerodrome, Harmondsworth) employed her to assist with OS Mapping. She joined them in May of 1938. For her job, Lettice Curtis Flew a DH Monoplane Puss Moth which was fitted with a Survey Camera to take pictures of several areas of England.
Then, in June 1940, as the Battle of Britain began, Curtis received a Letter of Invitation from Pauline Gower, daughter of a Conservative MP & Organiser of the Air Transport Auxiliary Women’s Section. If the ATA‘s creation had met with scepticism – the letters, to some, stood for “Ancient & Tattered Airmen” – the idea of Female Flyers was greeted with even greater resistance. The Women were Rich Dilettantes, the Newspapers hinted; ATA now meant “Always Terrified Airwomen”. “The Menace,” the Editor of the Aeroplane, C G Grey, had written, “is the Woman who thinks she ought to be Hlying a high-speed Bomber when she really has not the Intelligence to scrub the floor of a Hospital properly.” Curtis, meanwhile, headed off in the Lancia from Southampton to Hatfield, where the chosen ATA ‘First 8’ Women were then Based.
Soon after, she made her 1st Transopt Flight as an ATA Pilot, in a Tiger Moth Biplane. “The Cockpit of the Tiger was my World,” she wrote. “Control of it lay in my own hands, this was an entirely satisfactory state of affairs.” Attempts by the Authorities to restrict Women to Biplanes & Training Aircraft deliveries had collapsed by summer 1941. By then, Curtis said 30-yrs ago, “they didn’t mind if you were a Man, a Woman or a Monkey”. – “The men did not allow Women to Fly some new Types right away,” wrote another ATA Flyer, – Diana Barnato Walker. By October, she was sent to the RAF’s Central Flying School at Upavon to learn how to Fly more complex aircraft such as the twin-Engine Airspeed Oxford and the single-Engine Miles Magister with retractable Undercarriage. “We all found the CFS course pretty harassing; we were so unbelievably ignorant,” she wrote. “We were given no separate Technical Instruction or Written Notes, so it was simply a question of remembering what our Instructors told us.”
By the end of the War, she had ferried nearly 1,500 Aircraft, included 222 HP Halifaxes & 109 Short Stirlings, plus Liberators & Avro Lancasters plus one B-17 Flying Fortress. With Fighters and other Planes. Her only major accident of the War was after an Engine failure in a Typhoon, which necessitated a Forced Landing in a Field. Hitting the ground at 100-mph, the Aircraft turned over, leaving Lettice with a Head Wound that required Hospitalisation.
The CO informed me that a new Type Halifax B Mk.II Series I was coming from the Factory, and if I wanted, I could be the 1st to take her on Operations. I made a point to get a ride over to meet the Female Ferry Pilot and still to this day recall how upset she became as she did not wish to meet any Operational Pilots.
Lettice, who was not averse to voicing her Opinions when she thought something was wrong or when she was unhappy with her Posting, soon acquired a reputation for being ‘Difficult’. In his book Spitfire Women of World War II, Giles Whittell wrote that she either ignored people she thought were fools or “cut them off with a conversational carving knife.” Not surprisingly, she wasn’t universally popular among her fellow Pilots. She asked to be transferred out of an all-Female Pool as she preferred to be among the Men with whom she enjoyed playing Board Games such as Chess. Many decades later, when Lettice and several of her former ATA Colleagues were attending a British Women Pilots’ Association Awards Luncheon, Lettice talked loudly while Jackie Moggridge gave the after-Lunch Speech, making it abundantly clear what she thought of the still-glamorous Jackie.
Connie Leathart, Lois Butler, Margaret Cunnison, Pauline Gower, Jackie Sorour, Honor Pitman, Ann Douglas, Anna Leska, Stefania Wojtulanis, Winnie Crossley, Lettice Curtis, Pat Beverley (at the time she was a Driver), Audrey Sale-Barker, Audrey Macmillan, Rosemary Rees & Kitty Farrer
By the time the ATA was Dissolved, on 30th November 1945, she had delivered, in a relentless 62-month Flying Schedule and then, having applied for a Job as a Government Test Pilot at the Aircraft & Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down, was called, as “E L Curtis Esq”, to an Interview in 1947. In the Waiting Room an Attendant asked whether she knew it was “a Board for Test Pilots” – She did. “When he returned to the Boardroom,” She wrote, “a Roar of Laughter went up.” After her Flight test, She received a letter telling her they were “quite satisfied” that she would make a success of the Job, given the combination of her Flying & Technical skills. However, it added that the Official Processes were now at work and it was for the Establishment’s people at the Ministry of Supply to make the Official approach. “I am bound to tell you that they may hedge at employing a Woman for, as you yourself realise, Government Departments do not like to set a Precedent.” No precedent was set. Instead she was appointed as a Flight-Test Observer, work that extended into Tropical Aircraft Testing and an Intercontinental Mission, co-Piloting a Lincoln Bomber from Farnborough to the Missile-Testing Station in Woomera, Australia. From 1953 into the 1960s she was Employed, briefly, by Folland and then Fairey Aviation at White Waltham before joining the Civil Aviation Authority, where she stayed until 1976.
In August 1948, Flying a Spitfire XI, Curtis set an International Women’s Record for the 100km Closed Circuit at the Lympne High Speed Handicap in Kent. Some 44-yrs later she qualified to Fly Helicopters. She gave up Flying in 1995 aged 80-yrs. In 1998 she helped unveil a Memorial to the Women’s Air Services at Elvington, Yorks, and in 1999 featured in Forgotten Pilots, a BBC2 Documentary.
In October 1992, Lettice achieved her Helicopter Pilot’s Licence, becoming the oldest British woman at 77 to achieve this. Just 3-yrs later, she decided to allow all her Flying Licences to expire to concentrate instead on her Garden, Writing and the many Aviation Societies of which she was a member. As well as the Autobiography, her Books included an ATA History, Forgotten Pilots (1971), & Winged Odyssey (1993). She was a Founder and Life Member of the British Women Pilots’ Association.
In 1942, during a “Hustle Tour” of Britain, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the US President, arrived, with Clementine Churchill, wife of the PM, at White Waltham Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) Station. It was late October, and rain poured down. Sheltering under the Wing of a 4-Engined Halifax Heavy Bomber was Lettice Curtis. Thus did the 1st Lady shake hands with one of the most formidable of the 166 Female ATA Pilots who, like their Male Colleagues, delivered Warplanes around Britain, and beyond, between 1940 & 1945.As Curtis, wrote in her 2004 Autobiography, the day after the Roosevelt meeting, “the Papers latched on to this and, regardless of the fact that I had not yet even gone Solo, published Headlines such as ‘Mrs Roosevelt Meets Girl Pilot’ & ‘Girl Flies Halifax‘”. Curtis was, in fact, already Flying both single & twin-Engine Planes, but as an extremely competitive person – “to me 2nd Place in anything was a Failure” – she was dissatisfied with her Progress as the 1st Woman Training on 4-Engined Aircraft. That moment of glory came in 1942 when she became the 1st Woman to Fly Solo in a 4-Engine Aircraft – the Halifax. She was acutely aware that many doubted whether Women would have sufficient Physical Strength to cope with these huge Aircraft. “Any mistakes or failures, even if not of my own making, could result in an Official Decision that 4-Engined Aircraft were not for women”. Normally, 7-Solo Landings should have been sufficient to clear her for Ferrying the 4-Engined Bomber, but in her case, the ATA’s Chief Flying Instructor had decreed it had to be 10. So Lettice had to endure the frustration of waiting several months before having the opportunity to be cleared. The description of her historic Solo flight in the ATA’s Official Book Brief Glory describes how the Wheels “kissed the surface gently and the 30-Ton Aircraft rolled steadily down the Runway in the smooth manner which seldom characterises a 1st Solo, and came to a dignified Halt”, much to the surprise of the Station Master. He reputedly turned to the Official beside him and commented: “It didn’t Swing! It didn’t even Bounce! My lads have always kidded me how difficult Halifaxes are. Why, Damn it!- they must be easy if a little Girl can Fly them like that!”
The success of the Conversion School, and the versatility of ATA Pilots, is demonstrated by Lettice Curtis. In Autumn 1942 1st Officer Lettice Curtis became the 1st Woman to Fly a 4-Engined Halifax Bomber, an achievement shared by just 11 ATA Women.. (12-Women eventually attained a Class 5 Ranking.) In a single day, she Flew Class 1 Aircraft, a Spitfire (Class 2), a Mitchell & a Mosquito (Class 4), and a Stirling (Class 5). Her Experience was not unusual: Class 5 Pilots were expected, at a moment’s notice, to Fly anyone of 147 Types of Aircraft. Class 4 Pilots were capable of Flying 138 different Types. Almost half of the Women Pilots (82 in all) attained a Class 4 Ranking.
• Eleanor Lettice Curtis, Pilot, born 1st February 1915; died 21st July 2014 aged 99.
IWM Interview – alas not on-line
Reel 1 – Recollections of early Flying experience, 1930s: early interest in Flying; learning to Fly and gaining Commercial License; 1st Flying Job; Ordnance Survey Work. Aspects of Enlistment in Air Transport Auxiliary July 1940: Flight Test; question of Uniform. Recollections of period as Pilot with ATA at Hatfield Ferry Pool, 1940/1: Types of Aircraft Flown; Ferrying Duties; expansion of ATA; opinion of De Havilland Tiger Moth; Ferrying Aircraft long distances; dangers of Flying; daily routine.
Reel 2 – work at No.15 Ferry Pool ATA Hamble, September 1941. Recollections of period as Pilot with ATA at No.1 Ferry Pool White Waltham, 1942-1945: memories of Pauline Gower; male attitude towards female Pilots; attitude towards brief Posting to No.6 Ferry Pool ATA Radcliffe near Leicester; Accidents; Flying ‘Not Entirely Airworthy‘ Aircraft; opinion of Handling Notes in Aircraft provided; Billets; Morale; Ferrying Aircraft to Europe; Post-War Employment at Boscombe Down.
Air Gunner Bob Gill DFM 