Various articles about Mary's life have been published. The following is a brief summary of her life.
Mary was a British ferry pilot, one of the last surviving British women pilots from the Second World War, dying on 24 July 2018, at the age of 101.
Mary Wilkins was born on 2 February 1917, in Leafield, Oxfordshire. She was the daughter of farmers who lived near Royal Air Force bases at Bicester Airfield and Port Meadow. Mary developed a fascination with aviation from a young age.
When she was 11 years old her father paid for her to have a joy ride in a biplane at a flying circus, and she decided she wanted to learn to fly.
When she was 16 she started taking lessons at a flying club in Witney. She obtained a private pilot's license and flew for pleasure until the start of the Second World War in 1939, at which time all civilian flights were banned.
Mary enlisted in the warn in 1941 after hearing a recruitment ad for the ATA on the radio. During the next four years of combat, she flew around 1,000 planes, including 400 Spitfires and 47 Wellington bombers. Some flights were to relocate planes from Royal Air Force airfields to the front line, and others were to ferry new planes from factories to airfields.
After the war she continued to ferry aircraft while in the Royal Air Force and was one of the first women to fly the Gloster Meteor (Britain's first jet fighter).
After the war Ellis settled on the Isle of Wight, where she took charge of the Sandown airport between 1950 to 1970. During this time she founded the Isle of Wight Aero Club.
She married a fellow pilot, Donald G. Ellis, in Whitney in 1961. They owned a home next to the runway at Sandown. Don died in 2009.
The Sandown airport threw a surprise 100th birthday party for its retired chief last year, where Ellis opened up about her favorite aircraft—the Spitfire. She said, "I love it, it's everybody's favorite," she said at the time. "I think it's a symbol of freedom."
As part of the celebration, she took to the sky in one of the machines, controlling the Spitfire for 15 minutes of its brief flight before handing back to her co-pilot.
Ellis was one of four surviving female pilots from the war. Over the course of the war a total of 168 women joined the ATA, 15 of whom died in battle. She came close to death several times, including being shot at over Bournemouth and nearly colliding with another Spitfire in the fog.
In 2016 she published her autobiography, "A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story."
Mary died at her home in Sandown on July 24, 1918.
Mary was a British ferry pilot, one of the last surviving British women pilots from the Second World War, dying on 24 July 2018, at the age of 101.
Mary Wilkins was born on 2 February 1917, in Leafield, Oxfordshire. She was the daughter of farmers who lived near Royal Air Force bases at Bicester Airfield and Port Meadow. Mary developed a fascination with aviation from a young age.
When she was 11 years old her father paid for her to have a joy ride in a biplane at a flying circus, and she decided she wanted to learn to fly.
When she was 16 she started taking lessons at a flying club in Witney. She obtained a private pilot's license and flew for pleasure until the start of the Second World War in 1939, at which time all civilian flights were banned.
Mary enlisted in the warn in 1941 after hearing a recruitment ad for the ATA on the radio. During the next four years of combat, she flew around 1,000 planes, including 400 Spitfires and 47 Wellington bombers. Some flights were to relocate planes from Royal Air Force airfields to the front line, and others were to ferry new planes from factories to airfields.
After the war she continued to ferry aircraft while in the Royal Air Force and was one of the first women to fly the Gloster Meteor (Britain's first jet fighter).
After the war Ellis settled on the Isle of Wight, where she took charge of the Sandown airport between 1950 to 1970. During this time she founded the Isle of Wight Aero Club.
She married a fellow pilot, Donald G. Ellis, in Whitney in 1961. They owned a home next to the runway at Sandown. Don died in 2009.
The Sandown airport threw a surprise 100th birthday party for its retired chief last year, where Ellis opened up about her favorite aircraft—the Spitfire. She said, "I love it, it's everybody's favorite," she said at the time. "I think it's a symbol of freedom."
As part of the celebration, she took to the sky in one of the machines, controlling the Spitfire for 15 minutes of its brief flight before handing back to her co-pilot.
Ellis was one of four surviving female pilots from the war. Over the course of the war a total of 168 women joined the ATA, 15 of whom died in battle. She came close to death several times, including being shot at over Bournemouth and nearly colliding with another Spitfire in the fog.
In 2016 she published her autobiography, "A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story."
Mary died at her home in Sandown on July 24, 1918.
Various articles about Mary's life have been published. The following is a brief summary of her life.
Mary was a British ferry pilot, one of the last surviving British women pilots from the Second World War, dying on 24 July 2018, at the age of 101.
Mary Wilkins was born on 2 February 1917, in Leafield, Oxfordshire. She was the daughter of farmers who lived near Royal Air Force bases at Bicester Airfield and Port Meadow. Mary developed a fascination with aviation from a young age.
When she was 11 years old her father paid for her to have a joy ride in a biplane at a flying circus, and she decided she wanted to learn to fly.
When she was 16 she started taking lessons at a flying club in Witney. She obtained a private pilot's license and flew for pleasure until the start of the Second World War in 1939, at which time all civilian flights were banned.
Mary enlisted in the warn in 1941 after hearing a recruitment ad for the ATA on the radio. During the next four years of combat, she flew around 1,000 planes, including 400 Spitfires and 47 Wellington bombers. Some flights were to relocate planes from Royal Air Force airfields to the front line, and others were to ferry new planes from factories to airfields.
After the war she continued to ferry aircraft while in the Royal Air Force and was one of the first women to fly the Gloster Meteor (Britain's first jet fighter).
After the war Ellis settled on the Isle of Wight, where she took charge of the Sandown airport between 1950 to 1970. During this time she founded the Isle of Wight Aero Club.
She married a fellow pilot, Donald G. Ellis, in Whitney in 1961. They owned a home next to the runway at Sandown. Don died in 2009.
The Sandown airport threw a surprise 100th birthday party for its retired chief last year, where Ellis opened up about her favorite aircraft—the Spitfire. She said, "I love it, it's everybody's favorite," she said at the time. "I think it's a symbol of freedom."
As part of the celebration, she took to the sky in one of the machines, controlling the Spitfire for 15 minutes of its brief flight before handing back to her co-pilot.
Ellis was one of four surviving female pilots from the war. Over the course of the war a total of 168 women joined the ATA, 15 of whom died in battle. She came close to death several times, including being shot at over Bournemouth and nearly colliding with another Spitfire in the fog.
In 2016 she published her autobiography, "A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story."
Mary died at her home in Sandown on July 24, 1918.
Mary was a British ferry pilot, one of the last surviving British women pilots from the Second World War, dying on 24 July 2018, at the age of 101.
Mary Wilkins was born on 2 February 1917, in Leafield, Oxfordshire. She was the daughter of farmers who lived near Royal Air Force bases at Bicester Airfield and Port Meadow. Mary developed a fascination with aviation from a young age.
When she was 11 years old her father paid for her to have a joy ride in a biplane at a flying circus, and she decided she wanted to learn to fly.
When she was 16 she started taking lessons at a flying club in Witney. She obtained a private pilot's license and flew for pleasure until the start of the Second World War in 1939, at which time all civilian flights were banned.
Mary enlisted in the warn in 1941 after hearing a recruitment ad for the ATA on the radio. During the next four years of combat, she flew around 1,000 planes, including 400 Spitfires and 47 Wellington bombers. Some flights were to relocate planes from Royal Air Force airfields to the front line, and others were to ferry new planes from factories to airfields.
After the war she continued to ferry aircraft while in the Royal Air Force and was one of the first women to fly the Gloster Meteor (Britain's first jet fighter).
After the war Ellis settled on the Isle of Wight, where she took charge of the Sandown airport between 1950 to 1970. During this time she founded the Isle of Wight Aero Club.
She married a fellow pilot, Donald G. Ellis, in Whitney in 1961. They owned a home next to the runway at Sandown. Don died in 2009.
The Sandown airport threw a surprise 100th birthday party for its retired chief last year, where Ellis opened up about her favorite aircraft—the Spitfire. She said, "I love it, it's everybody's favorite," she said at the time. "I think it's a symbol of freedom."
As part of the celebration, she took to the sky in one of the machines, controlling the Spitfire for 15 minutes of its brief flight before handing back to her co-pilot.
Ellis was one of four surviving female pilots from the war. Over the course of the war a total of 168 women joined the ATA, 15 of whom died in battle. She came close to death several times, including being shot at over Bournemouth and nearly colliding with another Spitfire in the fog.
In 2016 she published her autobiography, "A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story."
Mary died at her home in Sandown on July 24, 1918.
