Stella "Jaye" Edwards (12 October 1918 – 15 August 2022) was a British aviator. Edwards, who was nicknamed "Jaye" and "Pete", flew

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

warplanes for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) 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 ...

Early life

She was born Stella Joyce Petersen on 12 October 1918 at Beckenham, Kent. The third of four daughters, with a younger brother, her father John Richard Sydney Petersen was an Australian trader and her mother Stella Courtenay (née Dawson) (1885-1951) read

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

at Girton 1904-07, received a BA in 1907 from

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

(quasi ad eundem) and MA (Cantab)before becoming a science teacher before her marriage.

Flying career

She became interested in flying having seen barnstormers and aerial circus acts. Watching her mother get on board a biplane and take off for Paris was a pivotal memory, and she was inspired by the exploits of the New Zealand aviator

Jean Batten Jane Gardner Batten (15 September 1909 – 22 November 1982), commonly known as Jean Batten, was a New Zealand Aircraft pilot, aviator who made several record-breaking flights – including the first solo flight from England to New Zealand i ...

. In 1939 she began flight lessons in a

de Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary traine ...

. She gave her profession as "Flying Student" in the 1939 register. Edwards was awarded her pilot's license after passing her test on 16 August 1939, flying a de Havilland DH 60 Moth at

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

Flying Club. She recalled receiving her license in the post on 4 September of that year, the day after war was declared. In the first years of the war, there were no roles for women pilots, so Edwards worked as a nurse. Early in 1943 Edwards saw a newspaper advertisement for women pilots to join the Air Transport Auxiliary and immediately applied. She was appointed as a third officer and began ferrying single-engine aircraft. She was posted to No 7 Pool based at Sherburn-in-Elmet in Yorkshire, near a number of aircraft factories. During her service, Edwards flew twenty different types of aircraft, often with very little training and always solo. She said that she disliked aerobatics and most enjoyed flying the

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

Later life

After the war, Edwards gave up flying. Her ATA exit debrief stated she was a better pilot than she thought she was. She spent some time in the South Pacific and worked as a secretary in Singapore before moving to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, where she married Bill Edwards and had a son. She became a teacher. When Prime Minister,

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

, approved the award of a commemorative badge to those who had served in the ATA, a badge was sent to Edwards for presentation in Vancouver. She returned to Britain in 2011 for an ATA commemorative event. Edwards died age 103 on 15 August 2022, in Vancouver. She was the last living British member of the Attagirls, as the women pilots of the ATA were known.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Jaye 1918 births 2022 deaths British World War II pilots British women in World War II Air Transport Auxiliary pilots English aviators British women aviators People from Beckenham