Mona Friedlander
Mona Friedlander | |
|---|---|
.jpg) in 1940 | |
| Born | Mona Renee Vera Ernesta Friedlander 2 June 1914 |
| Died | December 1993 (aged 79) |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | pilot |
| Known for | founding pilot of the Air Transport Auxiliary |
Mona Friedlander or Mrs Mona Renee Vera Ernesta Forward (2 June 1914 - December 1993) was a British pilot and one of the eight founding pilots who started the women's section of the Air Transport Auxiliary.[1]
Life
Friedlander was born in London in 1915. Her father was a rich banker and they lived in Park Lane.[2]
Her parents funded her to gain a pilots license, but they were unwilling to continue when her ambition continued. She wanted to train as a flying instructor. She continued despite her parents by taking a job pulling flying banners for the summer. Some pilots would take off with the banner but Friedlander preferred to fly back at a defined height and pick up the banner.[2] In 1939 she was working for Air Taxis Ltd of Croydon[3] when the government used their powers to move the company to Manchester.[4]
She was one of the eight founding pilots who started the women's section of the Air Transport Auxiliary.[5][6] The role was so new that she had to design and then get a tailor to make her uniform. Hers was based on the male uniform but with fewer pockets and in a lighter shade of blue. She did a lot of night flying as she would fly back and forth along a defined route so that gun batteries could use her plane to practice identifying her range and direction using their listening equipment[2] and pick her out with their searchlights. It was known as Army Cooperation flying.[5] The work was cold and initially she was unable to find a wireless operator to fly with her. Eventually one man proved ambivalent about flying with a woman pilot and after that she had other willing partners.[2][7]
In 1943 she was invalided out of the ATA and she took work as a censor. She was entrusted with inspecting press photographs to decide if they revealed secret information.[3]
In 1985 the Imperial War Museum recorded her biography as an oral history.[3]
Legacy
A bus company in Hatfield named its eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA, including Friedlander.[8][9] The fifteen surviving women members of the ATA (and 100 surviving male pilots) were given a special award in 2008 by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.[10]
References
- ^ "Mona Rene V E Forward". England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- ^ a b c d "LONDON SOCIETY GIRL IS ARMY PILOT". Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954). 1939-09-01. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
- ^ a b c "Forward, Mona Renee Vera Ernesta (Oral history)". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
- ^ "Air Taxis". www.airportofcroydon.com. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
- ^ a b "ATA First Eight". www.airtransportaux.com. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
- ^ Fort, Hugh (2020-03-08). "The extraordinary women who risked their lives during World War Two". getreading. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
- ^ "World War 2 in pictures: Women at war". The Telegraph. 2009-09-21. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Inspirational ATA Female Pilots Honoured". Women in Transport. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
- ^ Suslak, Anne. "Uno launches 'Tigermoth' buses in Hatfield named after inspirational female aviators". Welwyn Hatfield Times. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
- ^ "Britain's FEMALE Spitfire pilots to receive badge of courage at last". Evening Standard. 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2020-03-01.