Mona Renee Vera Ernesta Forward ( Friedlander, 2 June 1914 – 24 December 1993) was a British pilot and one of the eight founding pilots who started the women's section of the

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...

Early life

Mona Renee Vera Ernesta Friedlander was born in Queensgate,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in June 1914. Her father was a rich banker and they lived in

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from May ...

. Age six her mother took her and her sister, who suffered from tuberculosis, to live in Paris. Friedlander went to school in Vienna, Switzerland and Germany, only returned to live in Britain age seventeen. She attended the LSE and took a secretarial course, which led to secretarial jobs. Age 21, she went to America as a secretary to a friend of her father. On her return, a friend took her to

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

, "gave me a couple of gins and tonics and sent me up in an aeroplane" and she became hooked on flying.

Flying

She worked in the small aircraft factory near Brooklands and the machine place at Broolands to understand the mechanics of flying. She took her 'B' licence (pilot's licence) Friedlander was issued with her licence (No. 14599) on 11 November 1936, having taken the test at Brooklands Flying Club in a

De Havilland DH.60 Moth The de Havilland DH.60 Moth is a 1920s British two-seat touring and training aircraft that was developed into a series of aircraft by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. Development The DH.60 was developed from the larger DH.51 biplane. ...

. She qualified as a 2nd class navigator and in night flying. Her parents initially funded her pursuit of a pilot's license, but they ended support with that goal achieved. Her father loved her flying, her mother was "horrified". She wanted to train as a flying instructor and continued despite her parents objections by taking a job pulling

aerial advertising Aerial advertising is a form of advertising that incorporates the use of flogos, manned aircraft, or drones to create, transport, or display, advertising media. The media can be ''static'', such as a banner, logo, lighted sign or sponsorship bran ...

banners. Some pilots would take off with the banner but Friedlander preferred to fly back at a defined height and pick up the banner. She flew banners around the Scottish coast, particularly Aberdeen. In Spring of 1939 she went to work for Air Taxis Ltd of Croydon, taking people up for joy rides and air taxi journeys and moved with them when the government moved the company to Manchester at the outbreak of the Second World War. In the 1939 Register she was listed as a pilot living in 16 Deansgate Manchester. Friedland took the

test at Filton, Bristol having been written to because she had over 200 flying hours.

Air Transport Auxiliary

Friedlander was one of the eight founding pilots in the women's section of the

(ATA) and started working at Hatfield airfield on 7 January 1940. Alongside

Winifred Crossley Fair Winifred Crossley (9 January 1906 - 27 March 1984) was an aviator the first woman to be checked out on a Hurricane fighter. She was one of the ''First Eight'', the initial group of women pilots to join the Air Transport Auxiliary. Early life Win ...

Margaret Cunnison Margaret Cunnison (29 May 1914 – 4 January 2004) was a Scottish aviator and the first Scottish woman flying instructor. She was one of the first women to join the Air Transport Auxiliary. Life Margaret Cunnison was born in Haddington in 1914. ...

, Hon.

Margaret Fairweather Margaret Fairweather (23 September 1901 – 4 August 1944) was a British aviator and one of the first eight women members of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She was the first woman to fly a Supermarine Spitfire. Life Fairweather was born in 1 ...

Joan Hughes Joan Lily Amelia Hughes, MBE (27 April 1918 – 16 August 1993) was a World War II ferry pilot and one of Britain's first female test pilots. She was considered a capable instructor and flew everything except flying boats. Early life Hughe ...

Gabrielle Patterson Gabrielle Ruth Millicent Patterson (; 1905–1968) was a British aviator who worked for the Air Transport Auxiliary. She was Britain's first woman flying instructor. Early life She was born in Maida Vale in London on 6 July 1905. She was the elde ...

Rosemary Rees Rosemary Rees Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (23 September 1901 – 8 March 1994) was a British aviator who worked for the Air Transport Auxiliary. She was second in command to Margaret Wyndham Gore, Margot Gore at ...

and

Marion Wilberforce Marion Wilberforce (22 July 1902 – 17 December 1995) was a Scottish aviator and one of the first eight members of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She flew many planes including Supermarine Spitfire, Spitfires, Hawker Hurricane, Hurricanes, ...

, they were known as the First Eight, all appointed by Commandant

Pauline Gower Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower Fahie (22 July 1910 – 2 March 1947) was a British pilot and writer who established the women's branch of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. Early life and education Pauline Mary de Peauly ...

. The role was so new that she had to design and then get a tailor to make her uniform. Hers was based on the male uniform but with fewer pockets and in a lighter shade of blue. Friedlander did a lot of night flying as she would fly back and forth along a defined route so that gun batteries could use her plane to practice identifying her range and direction using their listening equipment and pick her out with their searchlights. It was known as Army Cooperation flying. The work was cold and initially she was unable to find a wireless operator to fly with her. Eventually one man proved amenable to flying with a female pilot. After that she had other willing crewmen. Her logbook was checked and signed every month by Pauline Gower. In 1943 she was invalided out of the ATA and she took work as a censor. She was entrusted with inspecting press photographs to decide if they revealed secret information.

Personal life

Mona Friedlander married Alan Forward in 1941 in Westminster. Mona Forward died in

Halstock __NOTOC__ Halstock is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately south of Yeovil in Somerset. It lies on the route of the ancient Harrow Way. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

on Christmas Eve 1993 at the age of 79.

Legacy

In 1985 the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

recorded her biography as an oral history. A bus company in Hatfield named its eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA, including Friedlander. The fifteen surviving women members of the ATA (and 100 surviving male pilots) were given a special award in 2008 by the Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedlander, Mona 1914 births 1993 deaths Air Transport Auxiliary pilots People from London