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Rosemary Rees

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British aviator (1901–1994) For the New Zealand writer, see Rosemary Rees (New Zealand writer).

Rosemary Rees
Born23 September 1901
Brompton, London, England
Died8 March 1994
Parkham, Devon
Other namesRosemary, Lady du Cros
Occupationpilot
EmployerAir Transport Auxiliary
Known forOne of the first women in the ATA
SpousePhilip Du Cros
ParentJohn Rees (civil servant)
RelativesRichard Rees

Rosemary Rees MBE (23 September 1901 – 8 March 1994) was a British aviator who worked for the Air Transport Auxiliary. She was second in command to Margot Gore at Hamble from the 29th September 1941 when the site became an all-women ATA ferry pool.

Early life

Born Rosemary Theresa Rees to Sir John Rees and Mary Catherine Rees (née Dormer) on 23 September 1901 in Brompton, London. Her older brother Richard Rees (1900–1970) was a British diplomat, writer and painter.

Rees learned to dance through a ballet school in Chelsea. She then began dancing and performing in revue around the world including Ceylon, China and America.

Flying

In the UK she took up flying and went solo after just seven hours instruction in 1933. Rees bought her own aeroplane. She visited European air-rallies with her Miles Hawk aircraft. She had over 600 hours before she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and already had her instructors licence which she had achieved in 1938.

Rees joined the ATA on New Years Day 1940, one of the ATA's first eight female pilots alongside Joan Hughes, Margaret Cunnison, Mona Friedlander, Gabrielle Patterson, Marion Wilberforce, Margaret Fairweather, and Winifred Crossley Fair, under the command of Pauline Gower.

The Air Transport Auxiliary, 1939-1945. C389

In September 1941 she took on her role as deputy to Margot Gore at the all woman ferry pool at Hamble-on-Solent. She left the ATA in November 1945. By the end of the war she was one of only 11 women who had flown the 4-engine bombers and had flown 91 different aircraft types. In 1946 she started her own charter company called Sky Taxi.

Rees was one of the few ATA pilots that received a MBE.

Life after flying

On 3 November 1950 she married Sir Philip Harvey Du Cros (1898–1975) becoming Rosemary, Lady du Cros. She moved to live with him in Parkham, Devon, where she became involved in politics, eventually becoming chairman of the Bideford area Conservative Association.

Death

Rees died at Little Bocombe, Parkham, on 8 March 1994, aged ninety-two.

Legacy

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

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.

In December 2020, six pilot’s logbooks belonging to Rosemary Rees, were sold at auction for £7400, well above the expected estimate. The logbooks dated from June 25, 1933 to June 23, 1947, and were sold together with a leather flying helmet, leather gloves, two photograph albums, photographs of Rees as a dancer and related ephemera and books on flying.

References

  1. "Rees, Eng.-Capt. John David, (1861–23 Jan. 1951)", Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u242201
  2. "R". Home. 25 January 1912. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  3. Merry, L.K. (2014). Women Military Pilots of World War II: A History with Biographies of American, British, Russian and German Aviators. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-7864-5768-7. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  4. Curtis, L. (2004). Lettice Curtis: Her Autobiography. Red Kite. ISBN 978-0-9546201-1-0. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  5. Mary Ellis, A.T.T.M.F. (2016). A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story. Pen & Sword Books Limited. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-4738-9536-2. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  6. "WOMAN FLYER IN ARMY - Noted Doctor's Daughter - Daily Mercury (Mackay, Qld. : 1906 - 1954) - 12 Jan 1940". Trove. 12 January 1940. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  7. "WOMEN PILOTS SERVE - Air Transport Auxiliary Corps - The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) - 4 Apr 1940". Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954). 4 April 1940. p. 12. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  8. "MOST EXCLUSIVE R.A.F. SQUADRON - Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954) - 25 May 1940". Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954). 25 May 1940. p. 7. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  9. "Gore, Margaret Wyndham (1913–1993), airwoman and osteopath | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67670. Retrieved 4 March 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. "Air Transport Auxiliary at Hamble". www.hugofox.com.
  11. Newspapers/Shutterstock, Associated (3 November 1950). "Wedding Miss Rosemary Rees Wartime Air Transport Editorial Stock Photo - Stock Image". Shutterstock Editorial. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  12. Poad, Richard (14 January 2020). "ATA's first 8 women pilots". Air Transport Auxiliary. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  13. "The Air Transport Auxiliary". Kenley Revival. 13 March 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  14. "WWII women fighter pilots celebrated". BBC News. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  15. "ATA First Eight". British Air Transport Auxiliary (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  16. "Women in Uniform - Women in World War II - Sources". The National Archives. 15 August 2003. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  17. "Inspirational ATA Female Pilots Honoured". Women in Transport. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  18. "Britain's FEMALE Spitfire pilots to receive badge of courage at last". Evening Standard. 21 February 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  19. "Second World War female pioneering pilots memorabilia soars beyond estimates at auction". www.antiquestradegazette.com. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
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