Diana Barnato Walker made history when she took off in an RAF Lightning from Teesside in 1963 to become the first British woman to fly through the sound barrier. PETER BARRON remembers an aviation pioneer

AS he pottered through one of the world’s biggest second-hand bookshops during a weekend break in Northumberland, historian Geoff Hill was inevitably drawn to the section devoted to his passion – aviation.

There, among the countless books stacked sky high at Barter Books, on Alnwick’s Victorian railway station, he discovered the remarkable story of one of Britain’s most renowned female pilots.

A quick flick through the pages of an old copy of Spreading My Wings showed that the author, Diana Barnato Walker MBE, had been the first British woman to fly through the sound barrier.

And, to Geoff’s astonishment and delight, this moment in history had taken place at RAF Middleton St George, now the site of Teesside International Airport.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says Geoff, chair of the Middleton St George Memorial Association, which is dedicated to preserving the heritage of the wartime station.

“In all my time researching the history of the base, neither I, nor any of my colleagues, had ever come across the story.”

Geoff has gone on to painstakingly research the remarkable life of Diana, adding her story to his ever-growing collection of memories associated with RAF Middleton St George.

Diana was born into a privileged background during a Zeppelin raid on London. Her father was wealthy financier Woolf ‘Babe’ Barnato, one of the famous ‘Bentley Boys’ who won the Le Mans 24-Hour Race three years running from 1928 to 1930.

Chairman of Bentley Motors, and wicketkeeper for Surrey County Cricket Club, at the time, Babe had inherited a fortune from his father, Barney Barnato Isaacs, who co-founded the De-Beers diamond mine in South Africa.

But Diana quickly grew tired of the social whirlwind of being a young debutante in London, and her fascination for aviation took flight when she paid £3 for a flying lesson in a Tiger Moth at the Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit in 1938. A natural in the skies, she flew solo after just six hours.

(Image: Geoff Hill)

Her mind was quickly made up to become a pilot and in 1941, after serving as a nursing auxiliary with the British Expeditionary Force, she passed rigorous tests to join the women’s arm of the Air Transport Auxiliary.

Despite being just a little over five feet tall, often needing a cushion to reach the controls of the aircraft she flew, Diana swiftly built a reputation for displaying outstanding skills in a male dominated world.

And yet, despite her undoubted ability, she wasn’t allowed to fly in combat – all because she was a woman.

“I think we would have been perfectly decent fighter pilots,” she said. “But it was assumed that war was men’s business. We had a duty to back them up. We could hardly sit about looking pretty and doing nothing, could we?”

Instead of fighting, she delivered 260 unarmed Spitfires from factories to RAF airfields all over the country between 1942 and 1945.

During her intrepid career, she also safely delivered a range of other aircraft, including Gladiators, Beaufighters, Hurricanes, Mosquitoes, a Swordfish, Walrus, Avenger, Mustangs, Typhoons, North American B25 Mitchell Twin-Engined Bombers, Ansons, and Warwicks.

However, she refused to fly unless she was well turned out, always combing her hair and putting on make-up when she landed.

In 1942, she fell in love with Battle of Britain ace, Wing Commander Humphrey Trent Gilbert, who cunningly persuaded her to stay for supper by secretly removing the spark plugs from the Miles Magister she’d been forced to land in foul weather at his base, RAF Debden, in Essex.

Less than a month after their engagement, Gilbert was killed in a Spitfire crash. In 1944, she married Wing Commander Derek Walker but, tragically, he was also killed in a flying accident a year later.

Diana vowed never to marry again but she went on to have a 30-year love affair with American racing driver and Battle of Britain Hurricane pilot, Whitney Straight. Their son, Barney Barnato, was born in 1947.

After the war, Diana went on to fly for the Women’s Junior Air Corps, training hundreds of young women to fly in an American Fairchild Argus II high-wing monoplane.

She would frequently fly from White Waltham Airfield, at Maidenhead, to RAF Middleton St George for training days, always residing and dining at the officers’ mess – now the derelict St George Hotel.

She had already achieved so much, but in 1963, while staying at RAF Middleton St George, Wing Commander John de M. Severgne, suggested she might like to fly one of the super-fast Lightnings based at the North East airfield.

Excited by the prospect of flying faster than ever, but concerned that no one should get into trouble for allowing a woman to take the controls, Diana insisted “only if it’s official”.

She sought a meeting with an old friend, the Right Hon. Hugh Fraser, the Minister of Defence (Air), and he quickly saw the commercial value in the suggestion. After all, Britain was keen to sell Lightnings abroad and a woman flying one would demonstrate how easy it was to fly!

And, so, amid the perfect weather conditions of August 26, 1963, 45-year-old Diana was allowed to take off from the runway near Darlington, with Squadron Leader Ken Goodwin as check pilot on board the RAF Lightning Jet XM966 twin-seater.

The Lightning in which Diana Barnato Walker made historyThe Lightning in which Diana Barnato Walker made history (Image: Geoff Hill)

In her book, Diana recalls the moment she flew through the sound barrier: “…suddenly, all was quiet – and I mean quiet. All our sound was left behind us. I could hear my neck creaking when I moved my head but that was all…I slowed back through the sound barrier and, regretfully, turned towards the English coast, then flew down to Hartlepool Bay…”

The records show that she had flown at Mach 1.65 – 1,262 miles per hour – breaking the official record set by France’s Jacqueline Auriol.

Born on January 15, 1918, Diana Barnato Walker – the first British woman to fly through the sound barrier, and the world’s fastest woman – lived until she was 90 and died on April 28, 2008.

For Geoff Hill, her epic story is yet another treasured chapter in the history of what is now Teesside International Airport.

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Along with his research and photographs from her life, he has also acquired an original set of Air Transport Auxiliary pilot’s handling notes, like those Diana would have used, as well as an original ATA flying helmet, and a propeller from an open-canopy Tiger Moth.

(Image: Geoff Hill)

Geoff’s hope is that it will all go on display, along with the rest of his ever-growing collection, once a suitable space has been identified on the airport site.

“Diana was nothing short of a phenomenon, an aviation pioneer who shouldn’t be forgotten,” says Geoff. “And, what makes it extra-special, is that history was made here – on Teesside!”