Lettice Curtis was enrolled at Benenden because her parents “wanted the girls in the family to be educated so they could earn their own livings” and joined Hemsted House in 1927. She was an avid sportswoman and by 1929 was Captain of the U15 Lacrosse Team and by the time she left, played in both the School and House Lacrosse and Tennis teams. Academically, she was a good mathematician and accepted a place at St Hilda’s, Oxford, in 1933.
In June 1937 Lettice had her first 30-minute flight in a Cirrus Moth G-EBZC which went towards gaining her Aviator’s Certificate, which featured this sentence written on it:
“The Civil, Naval and Military authorities, including the police, are respectfully requested to aid and assist the holder of this certificate.”
To obtain this certificate, she sat an oral technical exam and a number of flying tests. She followed this up with 100 hours’ solo flying with Yapton Flying Club at Ford to attain her B Licence.
She went on to become one of the finest women pilots of the Second World War,
delivering more than 1,000 bombers and fighters around Britain. Lettice
became the first woman to be cleared to fly four-engined heavy bombers
during her service with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA).
When the Battle of Britain began in June 1940, Lettice received a letter of invitation from Pauline Gower, daughter of a Conservative MP and organiser of the ATA women’s section. There were initial attempts by authorities to restrict female pilots to delivering bi-planes and training aircraft, but by 1941 pilots were very much needed and the initial resistance waned.
In 62 consecutive months between 1940 and 1945 she delivered 1,467 planes – trainers, fighters and bombers – around Britain, often in dangerous flying conditions and without radios and navigational aids except for maps.
Fellow ATA flyer Diana Barnato Walker wrote: “There was a lot of humming and hawing before Lettice Curtis, a tall, blue-eyed blonde girl, an excellent pilot … was allowed to ferry a Typhoon on 24 June 1942.” Lettice was intrepid; her only fear, reportedly, was letting down her sex.“Any mistakes or failures, even if not of my own making, could result in an official decision that four-engined aircraft were not for women,” remarked Lettice.
After the war she remained in the aviation industry as a technician taking an active part in air racing, flying various aircraft including a Wicko G-AFJB and a Spitfire XI.
Her plans of becoming a commercial pilot were dashed as women were squeezed out by their male counterparts returning from active service. Subsequently, Lettice set up the British Women Pilots’ Association in 1955, navigated hot air balloons, took her helicopter licence in 1992 and gave lectures for many years until her death in 2014, aged 99.