Elizabeth "Dolly" Shepherd (1886-1983) was a parachutist and fairground entertainer in the

Edwardian era The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victor ...

Early life

Shepherd was born in

Potters Bar Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, England.

Career

At the age of 16, she got a job as a waitress at the Alexandra Palace in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

so that she could see the composer

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...

. She overheard two men discussing the loss of a target for an act in which they shot an apple off a girl's head; she volunteered on the spot. Shepherd took the place of Sam Codys wife during his London show, wearing a blindfold, having Cody shoot, from her head, a plaster egg. In 1905 she ascended on a

trapeze A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...

slung below a

hot-air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries p ...

to a height of two to four-thousand feet before descending on a parachute. On one occasion both the balloon and the parachute malfunctioned, and she found herself rising to 15,000 feet. At this height, both the cold and lack of

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

were threatening to make her lose her grip and fall to her death. Fortunately, the balloon returned to earth before it was too late. The mishap foreshadowed a later, more serious incident during an exhibition jump on 9 June 1908. Shepherd had ascended with another female parachutist, Louie May. During descent May's parachute failed to release, leading Shepherd to implore May wrap her arms and legs around Shepherd so that they could descend on one parachute. Weighed down by May, Shepherd's descended too rapidly and was left paralyzed from the impact of her landing. She lay in bed, unable to move, for weeks. A doctor prescribed a course of electrical shock treatment. The doctor accidentally gave Dolly an excessively powerful electrical shock that resulted in her being ejected from the bed, but the powerful jolt realigned the vertebrae in Dolly's back and healed her. She then returned to her act and first flew again at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Edith Maud Cook died from injuries sustained following a jump from a balloon at

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

on 9 July 1910 when her parachute collapsed after a gust of wind blew her on to a factory roof. Shepherd had been due to make the jump at Coventry but Cook had taken her place. According to BBC History magazine she liked to "go high because I had it in my head that if I had to be killed, I’d like to be killed completely: good and proper!" She recalled that on one occasion she almost landed on a steam train "That driver, he had some forethought: he blew the steam and just blew me off into a canal at Grantham." In 1912, she thought she heard a voice telling her to " otgo up again" and she never did. During

WWI World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Dolly joined the Women's Volunteer Reserve, and she drove a munitions truck. At that time, she met Captain Percy Sedgwick, a man whom she chauffeured. Shepherd later married him, (married name Elizabeth Sedgwick). In

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Dolly (Elizabeth Sedgwick), was an air raid shelter voluntary marshal, in a sandpit near

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

, southeast London, England. She flew with the Red Devils display team a few years before she died at the age of 96.

Personal life

Shepherd married Captain Percy Sedgwick. Her daughter is Molly Sedgwick.

Legacy

There is a road named after Shepherd in the town where she flew again, Ashby-de-la-Zouch. "Dolly Shepherd Close" is off Philip Bent Road approximately 0.6 miles due West of the town centre.

References

Sources

* * Sally Lee. (2016)
Hang On, Dolly!
Pearson plc *
women_history_trails
- Haringey Council * *

*Sidney Smith
Dolly Shepherd, taking off in her hot air balloon, at the Pickering Gala
', on Wednesday 26 July 1911 Beck Isle Museum
'Dolly' Shepherd (1887-1983)
''Aviation Pioneers'' at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

External links

Profile and Photographs

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Museum

Dolly Shepherd Blog
- Debra Wallace {{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, Dolly English stunt performers English balloonists English aviators People from Potters Bar 1886 births 1983 deaths British women aviators