ATA Margaret Fairweather

Margaret Fairweather (23 September 1901 – 4 August 1944) was a British aviator and one of the first eight women members of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She was the first woman to fly a Supermarine Spitfire.

Margaret became one of the first eight women ATA pilots at Hatfield, starting in January 1940. She trained well and became one of the four women especially praised by Pauline Gower on the 3rd of March 1941. Margie requested extra leave in May 1941, which was granted, and she and Douglas took their daughter Ann for a holiday in a small farmhouse in Western Scotland. During her time with ATA, Margaret flew a variety of aircraft, from light training planes to heavy four-engine bombers. She was promoted to Flight Captain in February 1942, in charge of the Women's Flight at Prestwick, where she was a steady and reliable ferry pilot.

However, Margaret had a spat with Irene Arckless shortly after her promotion. On the 14th of September 1943, when Margaret was nearly 42, she received a notice stating that her contract was terminated since she was pregnant. She requested that her contract be suspended instead, and this was granted. She returned to work on the 15th of June 1944. By then, her husband Douglas had died, and their daughter Elizabeth was born a few days after his death. Douglas Fairweather was also a pilot and one of the first to sign on with the ATA. He set up the Air Movements Flight at White Waltham in 1942, and his wife later joined him.

He and Volunteer ATA Nursing Attendant Kathleen Kershaw had crashed in the Irish Sea, and he was on a mission from White Waltham to pick up a serious casualty from Prestwick and take them to the Royal Canadian Hospital at Taplow. Margaret's ability and devotion to duty were never in doubt despite the challenges.

Life

Margaret Fairweather was an accomplished pilot and a trailblazer in aviation, born on 23rd September 1901 at West Denton Hall, near Newcastle upon Tyne. She was one of the most experienced women pilots in the country, having flown several planes across different countries before WW2.

Her mother, Hilda Runciman, Viscountess Runciman of Doxford and her father Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford were both members of parliament. She was educated at Notting Hill High School for Girls.

She was an instructor for the Civil Air Guard at Renfrew.

Margaret married Roderick Nettleton King-Farlow in July 1925. However, they divorced in 1936, and she then married Douglas Keith Fairweather in March 1938, a businessman from Glasgow. They sold her aeroplane and re-registered his Puss Moth G-ABYP in their joint names. Later, they also bought a Leopard Moth, G-ACXH.

On 3 April 1944, Douglas Fairweather volunteered to go to Prestwick to collect an ambulance case requiring special treatment. In appalling weather, somewhere over the Irish Sea, the Anson came down and both he and the nurse travelling with him were lost. Margie gave birth to their daughter Elizabeth a few days later. Margie returned to flying only to be killed herself four months later. Douglas Fairweather's body was washed up on the Ayrshire coast. Margaret Fairweather and he were both buried in the small churchyard of Dunure, Ayrshire."

She was piloting a Proctor to Scotland on 4 August 1944 with two passengers on board when the engine failed near Malpas, Cheshire. All three were taken to Chester Royal Infirmary where Fairweather died soon afterwards. Her passengers were her sister, the Hon. Kitty Farrer, adjutant of the ATA, and Louis Kendrick of the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

She, and her sister Kitty suffering from severe fractures to her right leg, were taken to Chester Royal Infirmary. Margie had serious head injuries; the third person on board, Lewis Kendrick, had minor abrasions. Margie died at 11 p.m., without regaining consciousness.

The technical investigation showed that the vent pipe of the port fuel tank was completely blocked by a film of dope, causing the tank to collapse.

Blame was heaped on everyone involved in ensuring the aircraft had been fit to fly: The Chief Engineer, and the Engineers in Charge at White Waltham, for failing to ensure that it had been serviced properly;  the Officer-in-Charge Air Movements Bay; the Engineering Inspector, for failing to ensure that the fitters were competent, and the two fitters who failed to notice the blocked vent.

The report recommended that procedures be changed, and Proctors modified, to prevent it from happening again. She is buried, together with Douglas, in Dunure Cemetery, South Ayrshire. Near Prestwick.

In 1939, Margaret had a tragic experience when her friend, Dr Elizabeth Cook, was killed by walking into the propeller of the aeroplane Margaret was about to pilot. They were going to fly to Paris for a holiday, and the plane was standing with the engine ticking over. Before the accident, Margaret had acquired her first aeroplane from her brother Walter, a 1931-Reg DH Puss Moth G-ABLG, which he had flown in two King's Cup Races.

Legacy

A bus company in Hatfield named its eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA, including Fairweather. The fifteen surviving women members of the ATA (and 100 surviving male pilots) were given a special award in 2008 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.