JEAN Bird, who lived at Beech, is one of flying’s forgotten heroines, and her achievement of being the first woman to get her wings, after delivering planes to air bases in the Second World War, has almost been forgotten.

Now a campaign is on, being launched by three women, to give her the recognition she deserves by making a documentary about her life and the four others she pioneered the way for to get their wings.

The problem is finding the funding as Anne Grant, who lives at Stubington, near Lee on Solent, told the Herald.

She had been working on the campaign with Candy Adkins, daughter of Jackie Moggridge, one of the four women who flew in those war-time years and got their wings two years after Jean .They were Bernadette Willis, Joan Hughes and Frydis Leaf.

Joining Anne and Candy is film maker Jackie Wetherill and their bid to highlight Jean and those brave women who flew everything from Spitfires to Lancaster bombers comes as the RAF celebrate its centenary which they marked with a spectacular fly past in London.

It should be a fascinating documentary as Jean Bird was a real pioneer and a brave one.

A bright eyed, pretty woman, born in Hong Kong on July 8, 1912, who, aged 18, enrolled for flying lessons at Hampshire Aeroplane Club, Hamble

Two months later she had gained her ‘A’ flying licence, qualifying at the same time as her father Lt Col.Lennox Godfrey Bird on October 2, 1930, before returning to Hong Kong.

Jean grew up in Hong Kong where her father, an architect who, together with his brother, designed some of the most notable buildings in the city and in Shanghai.

When he retired he brought his family back to England in 1935 and settled into Old Farm, in Beech.

After the death of their father, Jean, until her tragic death, and older sister Margaret, who married a man called Beard, and their son James, lived in family home.

Said Anne: “Jean was destined to make her mark on women’s aviation. She came from pioneering stock. Her maternal grandparents supported feminist causes.

Her grandfather was Sir John Cockburn who went to Australia, took up a political career and supported the Women’s Suffrage League there, before he returned to England.

Back in London, Cockburn and his wife continued to support the Suffragette Movement. So, challenging the status quo was in Jean Bird’s DNA. She was not going to disappoint.”

When the Second World War started Jean joined the WAAF in 1940 and in December was appointed assistant section leader.

On August 1, 1941, she transferred to the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) staying with the ATA until it’s closure when First Officer JL Bird left on November 30, 1945.

During the war years she ferried Hurricanes, Spitfires, Wellingtons, Beaulighters. Mosquitos and Dakotas. Like the other women, who were later to be honoured for their bravery by getting their wings, she flew in all weathers, with no radio contact and using road maps or following railway lines to find the air bases desperately waiting for the planes she was delivering.

While his daughter was dicing with death in the air her father, Lt Col. Bird was in the local Home Guard in WWII. These were all stood down at the end of 1944, but one was reformed in Alton for a short while in the 1950s.

This time quite a few women joined their ranks and Jean Bird was one of 16 female members of the 3rd Hants (Alton) Battalion of the Home Guard. She was also a keen small-bore shot, said to be very good, and regularly attended the unit’s .22 shoots at Alton TA Drill Hall. Earlier she had been a member of the Alton Rifle Club.

After the war Beech’s ‘Spitfire Girl’, worked as a commercial pilot and later became very active as an air training officer with the Women’s Junior Air Corp and taught many girls to fly. She was also an expert glider pilot.

In September 1949 she signed up with the Women’s Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (WRAFVR) and put in the necessary hours of training. She then managed to persuade someone in a position of authority, inside the RAF, to let her qualify for full wings.

In September 1952 she made history when she became the first woman pilot to do so after clocking up over 3,000 hours in more than 90 different types of aircraft.

In a blaze of publicity Pilot-Officer Bird was presented with her full wings at a ceremony at Redhill Aerodrome

Jean had paved the way for some of her ex-ATA flyers to train for their wings. In 1955 her four fellow war time flyers matched her achievement

Flying Officer Jean wasn’t finished yet with breaking down barriers. She managed to get into the RAF Club in Piccadilly then an exclusive all-male establishment by not listing her gender. However, she was accepted but was booted out of the club as soon as she tried to enter the premises.

Jean and the other four ‘Wings’ faded from the limelight going about their daily civilian lives so much so that in 1991, when women pilots were now part of both the services and the commercial world of flying, the RAF announced Julie Gibson in 1991 was the first woman to get her wings.

This announcement, said Anne, made it seem Jean and her fellow flyers had been airbrushed from history.

Ironically Jean was to die in an air crash at Ringway Airport, in 1957, when piloting an aerial survey aircraft. She was 44 years old. The verdict was accidental death although in the evidence it was stated a wrong part had been fitted to the aircraft she was flying. Like her father, Jean was buried at sea.

A Jean Lennox Bird trophy was created by the British Women Pilots’ Association in her honour.

Anne first became involved in Jean’s story 20 years ago when as a medical researcher she was working on a project to find out how war-time occupations had affected people in their later lives.

“I saw a letter about a lady who had flown Spitfires in the Second World War and my jaw dropped.”

She continued her research and recently met up with Candy Adkins, daughter of one of the ‘famous five’ Jackie Moggridge. Candy had visited RAF Hendon and on making inquiries felt there had been a denial of those five women being the first women pilots to get their wings.

A spokesman for Hendon RAF Museum said this wasn’t the case.

“We have never denied Jean Bird was a record breaker, the first woman to get her wings in 1952 but at the time she was not an operational pilot or an operational reservist in the RAF. At the time she was presented with her wings, like the other four, she was in the Women’s Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve and, as such, not actively flying for the RAF at that time.

Julie Ann Gibson was the first in 1991 to get her wings as a fully operational RAF pilot.”

He added “We acknowledge Jean Bird was the first member of the WRAFV to get her wings and in fact we have just opened an exhibition to highlight the stories and lives of people who played a part in the 100 years history of the RAF who we feel should be recognised.”

Candy is determined her mother’s story and that of the other four women, including Jean, should be told. So, since April she has been working with Anne and Jackie Wetherill to get a documentary made about those first five ‘Wings.’

“The problem is” said Anne, a computer programme analyst “getting the funding. We have been promised some but we will have to match funded any amount we get so that is an added problem, but we will do it.

“Also, I can’t thank Alton historian Jane Hurst enough for the contribution she has made to the research into the life of Jean.”