TWO NEW ATA MEMORIALS

Mary Webb Nicholson (USA) and Lettice Curtis were remembered at ceremonies on 22 and 23 May 2019 respectively.

Mary Nicholson was the only American woman to be killed in ATA service, when the propeller of her Miles Master detached itself near Worcester.  In the ensuing crash the aircraft hit an agricultural barn at Littleworth and caught fire; bystanders, including the farmer, were unable to save Mary from the flames.    She died on 22 May 1943 and on the precise anniversary a group of local aviation enthusiasts led by Mr Geoffrey Hudson unveiled a memorial plaque on one of the surviving buildings on the site.

On 23 May 2019 a wing of the spanking new Star and Garter home at High Wycombe was named in honour of Lettice Curtis, one of ATA’s most accomplished pilots and the first woman to fly a 4-engined bomber in the autumn of 1942.  Lettice’s niece and her husband travelled from Norfolk to attend the ceremony; her niece is shown admiring the citation in the Lettice Curtis Wing.