Third Officer Ruth Helen Kerly was born in 1916 in London and she came to notice as an officer who delivered Spitfires during the Second World War.

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Kerly had been photographed as a member of the Royal Aero Club in 1938, but although the ATA were desperate for pilots she was the 130th employed in 1943.

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Kerly was one of only two women to be commended as pilots during the war.

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Her commendation was given for landing a Spitfire

that had technical difficulties on 25 June 1944.

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She was in the Air Transport Auxiliary and it was her job to deliver planes from various factories including the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory which was one of the main factories for assembling the planes. She would deliver the planes to airfields around Britain.

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She left the ATA in September 1945 and in

1947, she married and became Mrs Storm

Clark.

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When she died in 1992 she left her Leather

flying helmet and goggles to a fellow pilot

named Alec Matthews. He in turn donated

their joint memorabilia to Thinktank,

Birmingham Science Museum. The helmet

and goggles are now on display in the Spitfire

Gallery which opened in 2015.

Source: Wikipedia

Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission

Photo: Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum/Wikimedia

Believed to be in the Public Domain (Copyright expired)