Rosalind Anne Rosemary Hanby (born 2 October 1951) is an English former

flight attendant A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are pri ...

notable for being the face of

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

in their "Fly the Flag" advertising campaign over a seven-year period starting in the mid-1970s through the 1980s. She became a minor celebrity as a result, working as a television presenter before becoming a nurse.

Early life

She was educated at the

Lycée Français The Agency for French Education Abroad, or Agency for French Teaching Abroad, (french: Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger; abbreviation: AEFE), is a national public agency under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ...

and became fluent in French and Spanish.

Career

After modelling work, she joined

BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the United Kingdom, British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. ...

in 1970 as a

VC10 The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance route ...

aircraft. In 1975, Hanby was featured in the "Fly the Flag" advertising campaign for British Airways designed by Foote Cone & Belding to showcase a working flight attendant. At the time, Hanby was signed to a 10-year contract with the airline and was not prepared for the fame that would ensue. Because she was constantly being asked for her autograph, BA moved her to

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and t ...

flights, which she recalled as a relief: " twas great because everyone was more famous than me." "Fly the Flag" was discontinued in 1982, immediately following the switch from the American advertising agency Foote, Cone and Belding (which had held the account for 36 years) to the British

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...

. Following her appearances in British Airways commercials she worked as a television presenter for

TVS TVS may refer to: Mathematics * Topological vector space Television * Television Sydney, TV channel in Sydney, Australia * Television South, ITV franchise holder in the South of England between 1982 and 1992 * TVS Television Network, US dis ...

, before going into nursing. In 2007, she was the school nurse at Leaden Hall School in Wiltshire.

In popular culture

* After a fight, an ambulance attendant crashes through a British Airways billboard featuring Hanby's face with the

strapline Advertising slogans are short phrases used in advertising campaigns to generate publicity and unify a company's marketing strategy. The phrases may be used to attract attention to a distinctive product feature or reinforce a company's brand. Etym ...

"We'll take more care of you" in the 1979

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...

film ''Moonraker''.

References

External links

Roz Hanby donning her old British Airways uniform for a school event in 2007
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Vintage advertisements

* * * 1951 births Living people British Airways people British female models English nurses British television presenters Flight attendants British women television presenters {{UK-tv-bio-stub