Naomi Heron-Maxwell

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Naomi Heron-Maxwell
Born(1913-06-25)June 25, 1913
Folkestone
Died1983
Occupation(s)Parachutist, Air Transport Auxiliary pilot

Helen Naomi Heron-Maxwell (25 Jun 1913–1983) was a British woman parachutist and glider pilot in the 1930s. She was the first woman glider pilot in the United Kingdom to achieve the Silver-C badge. She promoted gliding and helped to establish gliding clubs. She was a ferry pilot for the Air Transport Auxiliary in the Second World War.

Early life[edit]

Helen Naomi Heron-Maxwell, known as Naomi, was born on 25 June 1913 in Folkestone.[1][2] She was the daughter of a baronet, Sir Ivor Heron-Maxwell, eighth Baronet, and Lady Heron-Maxwell.[3] She was the second child and second daughter of four children; her younger brother Patrick was the ninth baronet.[4][5] Her father died in 1928 when Naomi was a teenager.[3] The family had been wealthy, but were less so after his death, and Naomi got a job as a secretary.[3] She "could not cook, nor sew, and she refused to be presented at court".[4]

Flying[edit]

In 1934, aged 20, Heron-Maxwell took flying lessons on a Gipsy Moth at Abridge Flying Club, Essex.[3]

Alan Cobham's Flying Circus[edit]

Heron-Maxwell joined Alan Cobham's Flying Circus in 1935 as a parachutist.[4] She had met a parachutist, John Tranum, during her flying lessons.[3][6] "Sir Alan had heard her on the radio and saw mileage in having a woman parachutist to pull in the crowds. Naomi was equally aware of her marketing potential".[4] Her mother "played an April Fools' trick on her, faking a letter from Cobham to say that he "will no longer be requiring your services owing to what he has read in the papers"".[4] Despite this, Heron-Maxwell met Pauline Gower to discuss signing up with Cobham, and got some useful information about terms from Gower.[4]

Her colleagues in the Circus included another woman aviator, Joan Meakin, who was a friend of hers.[3] Heron-Maxwell's reasons for taking the job are variously given as to do "for fun and the thrill of doing something dangerous", to show that the parachute is safe and "no one should hesitate to use it if the emergency arises", and to earn money.[5][7][8] The press called Heron-Maxwell "the only professional lady parachutist", "Britain's only lady parachutist", "the girl with the steadiest nerve in Britain".[9][10][11] She lent her name to advertisements for Ovaltine.[12]

Heron-Maxwell made around a hundred parachute jumps.[3] Her colleague Ivor Price was killed in May 1935, when they were jumping from the same aircraft and his parachute did not open.[13][14] Following this, Heron-Maxwell also had a near-accident following a change of equipment; she had previously used the Russell "Lobe" parachute.[13] "On her first free fall with the new equipment, she succeeded in missing the rip-cord handle, and her very low opening was not appreciated by the management. The crowd had kittens all over the place".[13] Another colleague, Frederick Marsland, was killed in a separate incident, and Heron-Maxwell's then boyfriend asked her not to perform again.[3] He died in a car crash not long afterwards, and she made no further jumps.[3]

Gliding[edit]

Heron-Maxwell learnt to glide first in 1936 at Greisheim in Germany, then with Fred Slingsby in a Falcon III, and then in a Buzzard glider at Darmstadt.[3][15] She was the first British woman to achieve the Silver-C badge.[1][3] Her final qualification for the certicate came during a flight in which she was lost in cloud for three hours: "It was great fun outside the cloud, but inside the cloud it was not at all pleasant to be hurled up and down in a thunderstorm without being able to see anything".[16][17]

Heron-Maxwell translated Wolf Hirth's Die Hohe Schule des Segelfluges from German as The Art of Soaring Flight, published in 1939.[18][19]

In the United Kingdom, she worked as a gliding instructor at clubs including Cambridge University Gliding Club and Yorkshire Gliding Club.[20] She helped to establish Oxford University Gliding Club and gave lectures to promote the foundation of other clubs, such as Bristol Gliding Club.[1][20][21] In a lecture at Hull Literary and Philosophical Society, "With slides, diagrams and film, as well as commentary, lucid and unemotional, she indicated that gliding was a science, based on cool calculation, though always strangely fascinating and, in the ultimate, uncanny".[22] Heron-Maxwell wrote articles about gliding and gave radio talks.[23][24] She wrote that "as [gliding] is one of the few sports where, once the preliminary training is over, men and women compete on an equal basis, neither having an advantage over the other, more and more women are being attracted to it".[25]

Air Transport Auxiliary[edit]

Heron-Maxwell was a ferry pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War, between 1942 and 1945.[1][2][3][26]

Personal life[edit]

Heron-Maxwell married Francis Cecil Howard Allen in 1938, but he died the following year.[2] She moved to California, married Howard D Thomas in 1957 and had a child in 1958.[2][3] She died in 1983.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Ellis, M.; Foreman, M. (2016). A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story. Pen & Sword Books. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4738-9538-6. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d "Ferry Pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary". Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Smith, Sally (2021). Magnificent Women and Flying Machines: The First 200 Years of British Women in the Sky. History Press. p. 245. ISBN 978-0-7509-9919-9. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Hill, A. (2022). Pauline Gower, Pioneering Leader of the Spitfire Women. History Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-80399-148-1. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  5. ^ a b "A Woman's Notebook". Yorkshire Evening Post. 11 March 1935. Retrieved 26 January 2024. Miss Naomi Heron-Maxwell is only 19, but she is absolutely fearless ... she has floated down from aeroplanes beneath parachutes many times, for fun and the thrill of doing something dangerous, and whan Sir Alan Cobham offered her a job as a performing parachutist she was considering an offer from Hollywood to appear in a picture that demanded a heroine who could and would do daring feats
  6. ^ Cruddas, C. (2003). Those Fabulous Flying Years: Joy-riding and Flying Circuses Between the Wars. Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 978-0-85130-334-5. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Two Famous Air Girls". Waterford Standard. 11 May 1935. Retrieved 26 January 2024. Her accomplishments include flying, gliding. riding, ski-ing, skating, swimming, tennis and motor-cycling, but the ordinary pursuits of the modern girl do not appeal to her. "I have joined Sir Alan's display," she says, "because I love flying, and I am glad to have this opportunity of demonstrating parachutes in a useful way. I regard the parachute as a well-tried invention that adds to the safety of flying, and I want to show that no one should hesitate to use it if the emergency arises."
  8. ^ "Parachutist". Hull Daily Mail. 5 October 1934. Retrieved 26 January 2024. After excursions into secretaryship and other branches of business, Miss Heron-Maxwell decided to spend all her savings learning to fly. In a letter to a friend she says that she took up parachuting and found it profitable as well as the greatest fun in the world.
  9. ^ "Air Races". Hastings and St Leonards Observer. 25 August 1934. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  10. ^ "Sir Alan Cobham's New Air Display". Tonbridge Free Press. 21 June 1935. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Ordeals of Air Girl". Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore). 27 September 1935. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Famous Parachutist says "Ovaltine Strengthens my Nerves"". The Tatler. 10 July 1935. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  13. ^ a b c Cope, John (Christmas 1965). "Parachuting in the 'thirties" (PDF). Sport Parachutist: The Journal of the British Parachute Association. 2 (4). Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  14. ^ "Famous Parachutist Killed". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 31 May 1935. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  15. ^ "Miss Naomi Heron-Maxwell". Flight. 29: 531. 1936. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  16. ^ "Girl's Ordeal In Glider: Lost for Three Hours in Thunderstorm. Adventure of Baronet's Sister". Dundee Courier. 14 May 1936. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  17. ^ "Gliding Adventure for Baronet's Sister 10,000 ft. Up in a Thunderstorm". Daily Mirror. 13 May 1936. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  18. ^ "Reviews". The Aeronautical Journal. 43 (348): 1043–1044. December 1939. doi:10.1017/S0368393100103414. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  19. ^ "Die Hohe Schule des Segelfluges". Soaring. 23–25. Soaring Society of America. 1959. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  20. ^ a b "A Glider Club for Oxford?". The Tatler. 23 February 1938. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  21. ^ "PROPOSED GLIDING CLUB FOR BRISTOL". Western Daily Press. 30 June 1938. Retrieved 26 January 2024. A lecture was given by Miss Naomi Heron-Maxwell, the well-known sailplane pilot and parachutist, with the aid of a cinematograph and lantern slides, on the art of gliding and soaring. She also explained various points connected with gliding. Among those present were Mr Kenneth Lingford and Mr Keith Turner, both Silver Sea Gliding Pilots, the highest award for gliding. This award is also held by Miss Maxwell.
  22. ^ "SOCIETY GIRL 'CHUTE JUMPER IN HULL. AIR THRILLS RECALLED AT LIT AND PHIL". Hull Daily Mail. 22 February 1939. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  23. ^ Heron-Maxwell, Naomi (1937). "The Joys of Flying according to the Elements". The Listener. 17 (417–429). Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  24. ^ "Radio: Weekend Programmes". Daily Record. 2 January 1937. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  25. ^ "Gliding". Liverpool Daily Post. 13 May 1937. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  26. ^ "ATA Personnel". archive.atamuseum.org. Retrieved 30 January 2024.

Further reading[edit]

  • Naomi the Aviatrix (2011), publication of Heron-Maxwell's diaries by her son, Nick Thomas

External links[edit]

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