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Copyright © 2004-2020 Dawn E. Monroe. All rights reserved. |
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The names appearing are just a fraction of the Canadian
women of accomplishment.
Check out The Famous Canadian Women 's
section ON THE JOB
which contains mini profiles of 3000
Canadian Women of Achievement.
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|
1920's |
Eileen Vollick. Born Wiarton, Ontario 1908.
Fascinated by aviation from childhood this daring young woman enrolled in
a Hamilton, Ontario, flying school On March 31 1928 she passed the federal
aviation test and become the
1st Canadian woman to earn a private
pilot's certificate. Eileen soon moved to New Your, U.S.A. to make her
life but she had opened the doors of aviation to Canadian women who would
embrace flying careers as licensed pilots. |
1930's |
Helen Marcelle Harrison-Bristol.
Born December 7, 1909,
Vancouver, British Columbia. Died April 27, 1995, Blane, Washington,
U.S.A. Helen's early education took place in England and Belgium. After
her first flight she was determined to become a pilot. She took secret
flying lessons and attained her license in 1935. While visiting
Singapore she gained her sea plane license. In 1936 she earned a B
license in the London Flying Club, England. She studied for her
instructors ranking and became one of the 1st accredited flying
instructors in England. IN South Africa she taught at the Cape Town
Flying Club and became a flight instructor for the Royal South African
Air Force. In 1939 She
received her commercial pilot's license in the U.S.A. becoming the 1st
women in the world to hold a commercial pilot's license in four
countries. That same year she divorced her South
African husband, Louis Botha de Waal. During World War ll, even with her
qualifications and flight hours women were simply not accepted as pilots
in the Air Force. By 1940 she was a test pilot and Chief Flying
Instructor for Cub Aircraft Company, Hamilton, Ontario.
By 1942 she was the first
Canadian women ferry pilot to serve in the Air Transport Auxiliary in
the United Kingdom. She flew new planes to their
destination overseas and throughout England. After the was she became a
demonstration pilot. For the next 30 odd years she held various flying
instructor positions retiring in 1969. In 1968 she was presented with
the British Columbia Aviation Council's Air Safety Trophy in recognition
of her 14,000 hours as pilot-in-command without injury to passengers or
crew. In 1974 she was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.
(2020) |
1950's |
Moretta Fenton Beall
'Molly' Reilly.
Born February 25, 1922 Lindsay, Ontario. Died November
24, 1980. In 1939. Molly tried to sign up with the Royal Canadian Air
Force, but they were not accepting women until 1941 when the Women’s’
Division was founded. She
was one of the 1st recruits and she worked in the photographic area
to get to fly. She
finally earned her pilots license after the war and in 1953 she went to
England to earn a senior commercial license. In 1959 she married John
Hardisty 'Jack' Reilly (1921-2003) and that same year,
1959, she became a full time charter pilot
where she was the 1st woman in Canada be a captain and the 1st woman
to fly to the Arctic professionally.
She became the 1st woman to be a corporate pilot in Canada
when she was Chief Pilot for Canadian Utilities Company in 1965. .She
was inducted as a
member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in 1994. (2017) |
1970's |
Rosella Bjornson.
Born Lethbridge, Alberta July 13, 1947. As a
child she dreamed of being a pilot. At 17 she took her first lesson and
completed her Private Pilot's License in just two months! She accumulated
flying hours while she did her studies at the University of Calgary and
established the first group of Girl Guide Air Rangers in Calgary. In
1973 she was hired as a First Officer with the Canadian airlines Transair.
She was the 1st woman to be hired as a First
officer in North America on scheduled jet equipment and the 1st woman to
be hired by a commercial air line in Canada. She was also the 1st woman
to be a member of the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association.
During her second pregnancy in 1984 regulations were changed to allow a
pilot who is pregnant to fly. In
1990 she became the 1st woman to be promoted to
Captain with a major Canadian air carrier. Throughout her career, she has made valuable and
ongoing contributions to Canadian youth by participating in school career
days. I She is a member of the Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame. |
Judy Camerson
is the 1st woman pilot hired by Air Canada.
|
1980's |
Deanne
Brasseur and Jane Foster became the
1st women in the world certified to fly fighter
aircraft, February 1989 at Cold Lake , Alberta.
Source: The Kids Book of Canadian Firsts by Valerie Wyatt
(Toronto : Kids Can Press, 2001) |
See also Military |
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