Evette Huntley Branson (née Flindt; 12 July 1924 – 8 January 2021) was a British philanthropist, child welfare advocate, and the mother of

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

Life and career

Branson was born in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

(now

London Borough of Enfield The London Borough of Enfield () is a London boroughs, London borough in Greater London, England. The main communities in the borough are Edmonton, London, Edmonton, Enfield, London, Enfield, Southgate, London, Southgate and Palmers Green. Enfi ...

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

), England, the daughter of Dorothy Constance (née Jenkins) (19 June 1898 - August 1997) and

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

Rupert Ernest Huntley Flindt (born 11 St Faith's-road,

West Norwood West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, ...

, 28 December 1890 - 19 October 1966). As a young adult, she served in the

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the World War I, First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in ...

(WRENS) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war ended, she toured

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

as a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

dancer with

Entertainments National Service Association The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, ...

(ENSA). She later became an airline hostess for

British South American Airways British South American Airways (BSAA) was a state-run airline of the United Kingdom in the mid-to-late 1940s responsible for services to the Caribbean and South America. Originally named British Latin American Air Lines, it was renamed before ...

. After marrying, Branson ran a real estate property business and was a

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. Not to be confused with civilian police, who are legally part of the civilian populace. In wartime operations, the military police may supp ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

and

probation officer A probation or parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probat ...

. She also wrote novels and children's books. In 2013 Branson published her autobiography, ''Mum's the Word: The High-Flying Adventures of Eve Branson''. ICMEC Board

Branson established the Eve Branson Foundation and served as its director. Branson was a member of the board of directors of the

International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, with a regional presence in the United Kingdom, Europe, Turkey, Africa, Canada, Latin America, Caribbean, Southeast Asia, India, Jap ...

("ICMEC"), the goal of which is to help find missing children, and to stop the exploitation of children.Eve Branson (2013
''Mum's the Word''
p. 207. She was a founding member of ICMEC's board of directors in 1999, seeking to generate awareness of the centre's work, and her son Richard was ICMEC's founding sponsor.

Personal life and death

She married, in

Frimley Frimley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath, in Surrey, England. It lies approximately south-west of central London. The town is of Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Saxon origin, although it is not listed in Domesday Book of 1086. Hi ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, on 15 October 1949, Edward James "Ted" Branson, born on 10 March 1918, a former

Cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

man, son of Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson and wife Mona Joyce Bailey. He died on 19 March 2011 in his sleep at the age of 93. In 2011, Branson escaped a fire at her son's Caribbean home on Necker Island. Branson died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

complications on 8 January 2021, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirm ...

at the age of 96. A celebration of her life was posted online by her son Richard. He revealed that he owed his career to his mother, explaining that she had found a necklace in the 1960s and after the police let her keep the jewellery, because nobody had claimed it, she sold it and gave him the funds. "Without that £100, I could never have started

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

," he said.

Legacy

The

VMS Eve Virgin MotherShip (VMS) ''Eve''CNet News July 28, 2008 1:08 PM PDT, Candace Lombardi ( Tail number: N348MS) is a carrier mothership for Virgin Galactic and launch platform for SpaceShipTwo-class Virgin SpaceShips. VMS ''Eve'' was built by S ...

the carrier mothership for Virgin Galactic and launch platform for

SpaceShipTwo The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) was an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It was manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo was ...

-class Virgin SpaceShips ( Tail number: N348MS) was named in her honour by

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...

and her son Sir Richard Branson. A new Airbus A350-1000, G-VEVE - Fearless Lady has been named in her honour and was delivered to

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, West Sussex, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic A ...

in December 2021 as the first aircraft optimised for the airline's leisure routes.

References

External links

The Eve Branson Foundation

Eve Branson obituary
at ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' (subscription required) {{DEFAULTSORT:Branson, Eve 1924 births 2021 deaths People from Edmonton, London Royal Navy personnel of World War II English ballerinas Flight attendants British police officers British women police officers British women children's writers Women's Royal Naval Service ratings Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in England 20th-century English women 20th-century English people