Advertisement

Trailblazing female WWII Spitfire pilot dies aged 94

Jane Howdle
Joy Lofthouse was one of just 164 female Spitfires pilots during WWII (SWNS)
Joy Lofthouse was one of just 164 female Spitfires pilots during WWII (SWNS)

A WWII veteran who was one of the first women to fly a Spitfire has died aged 94.

Joy Lofthouse was one of only 164 women who were allowed into the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during the war.

Dubbed the ‘Attagirls’, they were based in White Waltham, Berkshire, and were trained to fly 38 types of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy aircraft between factories and military airfields across the country.

The ‘Attagirls’ were not allowed to fly in combat, but were occasionally caught up in dogfights. Their main enemy was the weather, which claimed many of them.

Joy didn’t witness any sex discrimination during her time as a pilot (SWNS)
Joy didn’t witness any sex discrimination during her time as a pilot (SWNS)

Joy, of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said in a recent interview: “When the war broke out all our boyfriends would talk about was flying. So when I saw the advert I decided to apply. Once we were there there was no sex discrimination.

“It really was the best job to have during the war because it was exciting, and we could help the war effort. In many ways we were trailblazers for female pilots in the RAF.”

Most popular on Yahoo News UK

Here’s why you should never end your text messages with a full stop
Police arrest 49-year-old man on suspicion of murdering missing teenager Gaia Pope
Rolf Harris has one of his 12 sexual assault convictions overturned
NASA solves mystery of eerie ‘whistling’ in upper atmosphere
Donald Trump describes world leader who admits killing people as ‘a good guy’

Joy added: “To be perfectly honest, I wanted the war to go on as long as possible. Wartime gave many women something they’d never had: independence, earning your own money, being your own person.

“You have to remember that as young girls, the emphasis for us had always been on marriage and children. So being able to go into the Forces to be taught to fly was virtually undreamed of.”

“Wartime gave many women something they’d never had: independence, earning your own money, being your own person,” said Joy (SWNS)
“Wartime gave many women something they’d never had: independence, earning your own money, being your own person,” said Joy (SWNS)

After the war, Joy – whose older sister, Yvonne MacDonald, had also been a pilot in the ATA – became a teacher, married twice and had three children.

Her second husband was Charles Lofthouse – an ex-RAF bomber pilot who survived 30 raids during the war – who was awarded an OBE for rescuing five men from a Stirling bomber in Cambridgeshire.

Joy and Charles were married for 30 years before he died in 2002 at the age of 80.

The Attagirls’ efforts went largely unrecognised until the publication of Spitfire Women of World War II by Giles Whittell in 2007.

Joy pictured at RAF Cosford in Shropshire for Project Propellor, an annual gathering of WWII service men and women, in May 2015 (SWNS)
Joy pictured at RAF Cosford in Shropshire for Project Propellor, an annual gathering of WWII service men and women, in May 2015 (SWNS)

Joy also hit the headlines in May 2015 after flying a Spitfire for the first time in 70 years to mark VE Day.

The then 92-year-old was accompanied by a co-pilot who controlled take off and landing but allowed Joy to take over while they were in the air.

After the war, Joy became a teacher (SWNS)
After the war, Joy became a teacher (SWNS)

At the time she told the BBC that the Spitfire was her favourite plane.

“It’s the nearest thing to having wings of your own and flying,” she said. “It was the iconic plane.”

Last year she was guest of honour in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, where she received a rapturous reception from the Centre Court crowd and fellow guests including David Beckham, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Geoff Hurst.