At 2pm today in Sennen Parish Church, a mile from Land's End, flowers
will be laid on the grave of a remarkable woman, and there will be a fly-past,
hinting at what the commemoration is for. We are very familiar with 'firsts' in
history; the first circumnavigation of the globe; the first landing on the
moon; the first to invent a light-bulb or discover the cure for smallpox.
However what comes afterwards is often as impressive, as the achievement is
copied or refined or bettered, not least when done so against the odds.
Seven years after the Wright
Brother's invented, built and flew first plane, the first woman to gain her
'wings' was Elise Daroche, a frenchwoman in March 1910. However for the previous
six months, Lilian Bland, Kent-born but of Irish descent, had been toiling in a
workshop at her aunt's house north of Belfast. She had been inspired by her
experiences watching birds as a photographer and from a post-card of Louis
Bleriot's plane that had crossed the English channel in July 1909, she had
convinced herself that she too could fly. But she had no interest in simply
flying; she wanted to build her own plane.
Visiting the first ever
Blackpool Aviation Meet in October 1909, she took detailed notes of all the
crafts on display, many of which couldn't actually take off, and from these
made a 6ft span model biplane glider back in her workshop, which flew when
towed. From gelatin and formalin coated calico to cover the wire and wood wing
structure, to a custom-made A.V.Roe engine that she ordered and collected in person from Manchester, the
full-size bi-plane then came together and was christened the Mayfly. It may
fly, she reasoned, it may not. So excited was she at the arrival of the engine,
that the need for a fuel tank had been overlooked, and in true Apollo 13 style,
a whiskey bottle and ear trumpet belonging to her deaf aunt became temporarily
seconded to do the job.
After months of testing and
refinement, on August 31st 1910, the Mayfly took off with Lilian at the
controls. Her achievement was recorded in the Belfast Telegraph a few days
later. Although she was only five days ahead of the first American woman to
fly, she was exceptional as a pioneer in aviation having constructed her own
aeroplane and shared much of her learning, not least through two years worth of
letters to ‘Flight Journal’. Yet the only reason I know about her is that she
was my great, great aunt who died when I was three and one of those laying flowers on her grave will be my dad. Her story has made me
wonder at the untold stories of women, who have been inspired by challenges and
made significant advances in history. Is it because they were refining the ‘firsts’
of men that they are neglected in our history books, and/or because like Lilian,
they were considered unladylike and rebellious? Are they really few and far
between, or are there many unknown knowns out there, waiting for their stories
to be told and the chance to rebalance the gender bias of our history books?
