Winifred Crossley Fair

Winifred Crossley was the first woman to be checked out on a Hurricane fighter. She was one of the first women to join the Air Transport Auxiliary.

Winifred Crossley Fair
Born
Winifred Crossley
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Occupationpilot
Spouse(s)Peter Fair

Life

Winifred "Winnie" Crossley was a pilot before the start of the second world war. She had worked by towing banners for aerial advertising for five years. She had also been a stunt pilot in an air circus.

She was one of the first women to join the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) known as one of the First Eight alongside Joan Hughes, Margaret Cunnison, Mona Friedlander, Gabrielle Patterson, Marion Wilberforce, Margaret Fairweather and Rosemary Rees, under the command of Pauline Gower. She served from 1940 to 1945. She became second in command at Ferry pool No. 5.[1]

The Air Transport Auxiliary, 1939-1945. C389

She later married Peter Fair, the airline captain who was the head of BOAC's Bahamas Airways based in Nassau.[2][3][4][5][6]

Legacy

A bus company in Hatfield named its eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA, including Rees.[7]

Fourteen years after her death in 2008, the fifteen surviving women members of the ATA (and 100 surviving male pilots) were given a special award by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.[8]

References
  1. Poad, Richard (2020-01-14). "ATA's first 8 women pilots". Air Transport Auxiliary. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  2. "ATA First Eight". British Air Transport Auxiliary. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  3. Curtis, L. (2004). Lettice Curtis: Her Autobiography. Red Kite. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-9546201-1-0. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  4. Veerasamy, Sonya (2019-02-07). "Inspirational ATA Female Pilots Honoured". Women in Transport. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  5. Lee, Adrian (2012-06-20). "Heroism of the spitfire girls". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  6. McDonough, Yona Zeldis (2012-04-30). "The Women's RAF". Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  7. "Inspirational ATA Female Pilots Honoured". Women in Transport. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  8. "Britain's FEMALE Spitfire pilots to receive badge of courage at last". Evening Standard. 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
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