Millicent Maude Bryant (née Harvey, 8 January 1878 – 3 November 1927) was an early Australian aviator. She was the first woman to earn a pilot's licence in Australia, Pilot's Licence No. 71, in 1927. She was also first to receive her pilot's licence in the Commonwealth, outside Britain.

Early life

Bryant was born at Apsley,

Wellington, New South Wales Wellington is a city in the Central Western Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, located at the junction of the Wambuul Macquarie and Bell Rivers. It is within the local government area of Dubbo Regional Council. The city is northwest o ...

. Her parents were Edmund George Harvey and Georgiana Sarah Bartlett Harvey. She was one of ten children.

Career

In March 1927, at age 49, Bryant earned a pilot's licence from the Australian Aero Club of New South Wales. With Evelyn Follett, she is believed to be the first woman to take a flying lesson in Australia and was the first woman to qualify for a private pilot's licence in Australia.

Personal life

Bryant was married to Edward James Bryant. They had three sons (born 1901, 1903, and 1908). She was widowed in 1926. Bryant died by drowning in Sydney Harbour in 1927, aged 49 years, one of the victims of the Tahiti-Greycliffe Ferry disaster. Five planes flew over her funeral and dropped a flower wreath in tribute. In the year following her death, her sons established the Millicent Maud Bryant Trophy to be awarded each year to the best all round pilot of the Australian Aero Club of New South Wales. Bryant's leather flying helmet is in the collection of the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. In 2001, Millicent Bryant was inducted into the

National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame The Women's Museum of Australia, formerly the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame, is a museum focused on the place of women in Australian history, situated in the restored HM Gaol and Labour Prison Alice Springs building in Alice Springs, Nor ...

. In 2007, to mark the 80th anniversary of her pilot's licence, an official plaque was attached to her tombstone by the Australian Women Pilots' Association.Millicent Bryant plaque
Monument Australia.

References

External links

*
1927 portrait of a smiling Millicent Harvey
in the collection of the

Powerhouse Museum The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. Although often de ...

*J. B. Vicars
"Flights of Imagination: Fictional biography and writing the life of Australia's first woman Pilot, Millicent Bryant"
(PhD dissertation, University of New England 2014). {{authority control 1878 births People from New South Wales 1927 deaths Australian aviators Aviation pioneers Australian women aviators