Mary Ellis: The Fierce Female Flyer of WWII

Mary Ellis lived an extraordinary life. She was an active flyer and British ferry pilot during the second world war. Later flying jet engines for the RAF, a claim only a handful of women would ever proudly hold.

Mary would put her life on the line to do what she loved. Completely fearless she knocked down whatever barriers faced her. Refusing to let anything, be that sexism or enemy fire, stop her from getting in her plane cockpit:

“I am passionate for anything fast and furious. I always have been since the age of three and I always knew I would fly.”

Pilot Mary Ellis in her cockpit.

Born Mary Wilkins, in February 1917, to a farming family in rural Oxfordshire, Mary’s passion for aviation was clear from the get go. Growing up close to Royal Air Force bases in Bicester and Port Meadow. She never missed a flying demonstration and her father, keen to fuel her dream, took her to as many shows as he could.

When Mary was 11 years old a flying circus came to town and her father paid for her to have a ride on a biplane (a thing you could totally let children do then…oh and if you were wondering, the plane was a de Havilland DH.60 Moth)

Like that, she was hooked. Mary was determined to become a pilot and spend the rest of her life in these magnificent flying machines. 

So, when she was 16 she started flying lessons and pretty quickly had her very own pilots license.

Hardly out of puberty AND already owning the skies – nice work Mary

In 1941 a call went out from the UKs ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) for pilots to help transport planes across the Chanel to the WWII front line. Naturally, Mary wanted to help the war effort in any way she could, so signed up and with 167 other brave female pilots who flew aircraft from Britain over to the front line flying squadrons. As well as transporting planes from factories to airfields over the UK too.

During the war Mary flew an estimated 1000 planes made up of 76 different types of aircraft, including 400 Spitfires, which were Mary’s favourite. She said of them:

“I love it, it’s everybody’s favourite, I think it’s a symbol of freedom.”

But, no matter her flying prowess, Mary didn’t always get the respect from others around her – sexism was a daily part of her life. 

Once when she flew a Wellington bomber to an airbase, the crew there refused to believe she’d been the one who flew the plane. They even searched the cockpit for the ‘real’ pilot. Mary remembered:

“Girls flying aeroplanes was almost a sin at that time.”

And it wasn’t just the troops. The press were very against the idea of women pilots seeing it as unbecoming and ‘unfitting of their sex’.

Mary’s mother also had her reservations about her daughter flying these monster machines. BUT, Mary refused to let anyone’s opinions stop her.

She loved being in the air. She loved to serve her country. And nothing could stop her from doing what she loved. 

Get it girl!

The job Mary, and the dozens of other women just like her, were doing was a dangerous one. Often the women had to fly a plane new to them, with no chance for test flights. They just had to rely on pilot’s notes to get the landings right.

And if they were taking a plane to the front line, the risks of getting shot down were high. In all 15 female pilots were killed while working for the ATA during WWII.

After the war Mary continued working with the RAF becoming one of the first female pilots to fly a Gloster Meteor Jet Engine, which had speeds of up to 616 miles per hour (991km/h)! They were absolute BEASTS!

In 1950 Mary moved to the Isle of Wight so she could take over running Sandown airport, she became the first woman air commandant, in charge of an airport in Great Britain!

While working there she met her future husband Don Ellis, a fellow pilot and they married in 1961, living in a house next to the Sandown runway. Now, Mary never needed to be away from her planes.

She managed Sandown for 20 years and founded the Isle of Wight Aero Club during that time too.

Mary with one of her beloved Spitfires

When Mary turned 100 (!) she was recognised for her contribution to aviation by RAF base at Brize Norton by a plaque celebrating her achievements.

Then in 2018 the Isle of Wight gave her their highest honour, the Freedom of the Isle of Wight.

Mary Ellis passed away this year on July 24th at the amazing age of 101, she was remembered by her family as being an amazing, warm and driven woman. Her story shows that courage and determination can get you so very far.

That was interesting, where can i find out more? Well there’s a magnificent biography on Mary: A Spitfire Girl: One of the World’s Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story by Mary and Melody Foreman

Sara Westrop is passionate about making history accessible (and fun!) for everyone. A disabled, queer writer from just outside London, who loves writing about the unsung chapters of history.

Quickie: Allotment Annies

Things were tough in WWII, but some enterprising young women in the US came up with a devious money making scheme, at the expense of some poor hapless G.I’s

See, in the US if you were married to a soldier you were entitled to a $20 a week ‘allotment’ if they were shipped overseas to fight during the War, and if they were killed in action you were entitled to $10,000!

Obviously this allotment was a godsend to wives who had families to feed whilst their husbands were at war. BUT the Army was so busy helping out with the war they didn’t keep too close an eye on who was claiming these benefits…

With such a lax system in place it’d be real easy, if you were a nefarious kinda gal, to marry a couple of soldiers, change your last name and just keep claiming that sweet sweet cash.

Making it rain with moral dubiousness!

Women that did this became known as: Allotment Annies.

‘Annies’ often racked up multiple husbands, and because of the huge death tolls during the war they didn’t have to worry too much about getting caught; since the poor schmuck they married was likely to get killed off before coming home and finding a new hubby in his place.

It goes without saying that Allotment Annies weren’t very popular people. Never mind breaking some soldier’s heart who’s been out fighting a horrendous war and is likely scarred for life – add finding out your Mrs is a bigamist; thats one mighty kick in the nuts.

The most famous Allotment Annie was Elvira Taylor. Elvira married SIX sailors during her scam and was only foiled when two sailors in an Australian pub showed each other pics of their lovely wife… only to discover it was THE SAME WOMAN!

Fisticuffs occurred, but after beating the crap out of each other, the two men banded together, went to the police and Elvira was duly hauled off to jail.

Vivian Eggers another notorious ‘Allotment Annie’

Meanwhile, Vivian Eggers from Indianapolis managed to marry a whopping 7 soldiers, including two in ONE DAY! The logistics of that must have been fun.

Viv ended up being taken to court by all 7 of her husbands; here’s what she had to say of her crimes:

“You just get to drinking and having a good time, and you meet someone that’s kinda nice and that’s the way it happens,”

BTW, thats an actual quote from Viv at her trial for bigamy & fraud; yeah… the judge was unimpressed and gave her 18 months jail time. 

But, a lot of Allotment Annies clapped back, claiming they were working for the war effort by giving the men something to fight and come home for. Grace Vivien Reinert a 22 year old Annie told press that;

“The girls figure that they’re making the boys happy, and that before the war is over the husbands will either be killed or glad to forget about their marriages.”

Incase you were wondering, Grace actually married 2 sailors and was claiming allotments for both of them. She ended up in jail because her husbands met up and realised they were married to the same woman when they noticed their allotment cheques were going to the same address. I guess her theory on the men being ok with it, didn’t really work out.  

The army soon caught onto the Annies scams, after they estimated that there were thousands of bigamist brides getting rich off the allotment scheme. BUT it was really hard to catch an Allotment Annie in the act; in the entire war only a few were ever actually caught.

So, the Army put together a plan to wise up their troops against wold be Annies. They created a series of adverts warning men to watch out for bigamists.

There was even a major film made about Allotment Annies; 1945s, Film Noir, Allotment Wives. Which stars Hollywood Queen, Kay Francis, as the ringleader of a bigamy scheme to get allotment cheques. Spoiler: It doesn’t end well for her.

AN example of an anti-allotment annie ad

After the war the Allotment Annies were finished… not because they got caught, but because the cash flow dried up when there wasn’t a war to fight overseas.

Who knows how many women scammed the US Army out of thousands of dollars. If it’s as many as the army claims then it’s kinda hard not to be impressed by that level of ingenuity.

This was interesting, Where can I find out more? Well, I’d totally check out the film, Allotment Wives, for a lovely slice of over the top propaganda noir. It’s currently available to stream on Amazon, along with several other platforms.

Sara Westrop is passionate about making history accessible (and fun!) for everyone. A disabled, queer writer from just outside London, who loves writing about the unsung chapters of history.