Ann Welch
Encyclopedia
Ann Courtenay Welch OBE
, née Edmonds, (20 May 1917 — 5 December 2002) was a pilot who received the Gold Air Medal from Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
(FAI) for her contributions to the development of four air sports - gliding
, hang gliding
, paragliding
and microlight flying
.
As a child, Ann Welch kept a diary listing every aeroplane that flew over the house. She first flew with Alan Cobham
in 1930. After she had acquired a motorbike to visit the local aerodrome, she learnt to fly, earning her pilot’s licence in 1934 one month after her seventeenth birthday.
She started gliding in 1937 and attended an Anglo-German Fellowship Camp at the London Gliding Club
meeting Wolf Hirth
and Hanna Reitsch
followed by a return visit to Germany in 1938. She started the Surrey Gliding Club in 1938 at Redhill, Surrey
becoming their Chief Flying Instructor and achieving a membership of over 100. When the Second World War broke out she enrolled in the Air Transport Auxiliary
, ferrying many types of aircraft including Spitfires
, Hurricanes
, Blenheims
and Wellingtons
from the factories to their operational units. She stopped this work shortly before the birth of her first daughter.
After the war she returned to gliding and with Lorne Welch
and Walter Morison
(two former prisoners at Colditz Castle
), she restarted the Surrey Gliding Club, eventually moving it in 1951 to Lasham Airfield
. She trained many pilots and instructors while bringing up a young family, sometimes shouting instructions to a family member as she flew past in an open-cockpit glider. As well as being a member of the British team, Welch was an active volunteer to the British Gliding Association
as vice chairman and in charge of British instructor standards and training for twenty years. She also managed the British Gliding Team for twenty years, and organised competitions including the World Gliding Championships
at South Cerney
in 1965. Later, she was elected as delegate to the FAI's International Gliding Commission and acted as jury member at several World Gliding Championships.
For many years she and Philip Wills
administered British gliding until the members felt that a change was needed. Conscious of the increasing cost of gliding and the need to involve young people, she moved away from gliding and became closely involved in the development of hang gliding
and paragliding
, and was founder President of the FAI's Hang Gliding Commission and its Paragliding Commission, and was a member of the FAI's Microlight Commission. She became president of the British Hang Gliding Association and when in 1991, the hang-gliders and paragliders joined forces, Welch was appointed president of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
. In 1978 she was appointed the president of the British Microlight Aircraft Association. Her books on aviation are still widely admired and sought after. In all she flew over 150 types of aircraft.
Ann Welch was awarded the FAI Bronze Medal (1969), the Lilienthal Gliding Medal
(1973) and the FAI Gold Air Medal (1980) in recognition of her devotion to the training and encouragement of young pilots. (With the Gold Medal she joined a group that included Otto Lilienthal
and Frank Whittle
.) In 1989 she was awarded the FIA's Pelagia Majewska Gliding Medal as an outstanding female glider pilot.
Her love of outdoor included sailing and studied the wind and tides. This was ultimately rewarded when in 1997 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation
. From an early age she excelled in drawing and painting, and was a painter of note. She was appointed MBE
in 1953 and advanced to OBE in 1966.
She married Graham Douglas in 1939, whose family owned Redhill Aerodrome
and who had lent the club the £300 needed to buy the necessary gliders and a winch. This marriage was eventually dissolved and five years later she married Lorne Welch in 1953. Lorne Welch predeceased her but she was survived by her three daughters.
In 2005 the Ann Welch Award was instituted for outstanding contributions to instruction in air sports. It was first presented in 2006 at Royal Aero Club
's Awards Ceremony.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, née Edmonds, (20 May 1917 — 5 December 2002) was a pilot who received the Gold Air Medal from Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
(FAI) for her contributions to the development of four air sports - gliding
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...
, hang gliding
Hang gliding
Hang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider ....
, paragliding
Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...
and microlight flying
Ultralight aviation
The term "ultralight aviation" refers to light-weight, 1- or 2-person airplanes., also called microlight aircraft in the UK, India and New Zealand...
.
As a child, Ann Welch kept a diary listing every aeroplane that flew over the house. She first flew with Alan Cobham
Alan Cobham
Sir Alan John Cobham, KBE, AFC was an English aviation pioneer.A member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, Alan Cobham became famous as a pioneer of long distance aviation. After the war he became a test pilot for the de Havilland aircraft company, and was the first pilot for the newly...
in 1930. After she had acquired a motorbike to visit the local aerodrome, she learnt to fly, earning her pilot’s licence in 1934 one month after her seventeenth birthday.
She started gliding in 1937 and attended an Anglo-German Fellowship Camp at the London Gliding Club
London Gliding Club
The London Gliding Club is a private members' club, and was set up primarily to train pilots in powerless flight, and the skills necessary to fly cross country using nature's sources of energy. Aerobatics and instructor training is also available. The club provides gliding courses, one day courses...
meeting Wolf Hirth
Wolf Hirth
Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth was a German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer. He was a co-founder of Schempp-Hirth, still a renowned glider manufacturer....
and Hanna Reitsch
Hanna Reitsch
Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and the only woman awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the Luftwaffe Combined Pilots-Observation Badge in Gold with Diamonds during World War II...
followed by a return visit to Germany in 1938. She started the Surrey Gliding Club in 1938 at Redhill, Surrey
Redhill, Surrey
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, England and is part of the London commuter belt. Redhill and the adjacent town of Reigate form a single urban area.-History:...
becoming their Chief Flying Instructor and achieving a membership of over 100. When the Second World War broke out she enrolled in the Air Transport Auxiliary
Air Transport Auxiliary
The Air Transport Auxiliary was a British World War II civilian organisation that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units , scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields—but not to...
, ferrying many types of aircraft including Spitfires
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
, Hurricanes
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
, Blenheims
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
and Wellingtons
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
from the factories to their operational units. She stopped this work shortly before the birth of her first daughter.
After the war she returned to gliding and with Lorne Welch
Lorne Welch
Patrick Palles Lorne Elphinstone Welch, , known as Lorne Welch, was a British engineer, pilot and Colditz prisoner of war....
and Walter Morison
Walter Morison
Flight Lieutenant Walter McDonald Morison was a Royal Air Force pilot who became a prisoner of war and was sent to Colditz for attempting to steal an enemy aircraft during the Second World War.-Royal Air Force service:...
(two former prisoners at Colditz Castle
Colditz Castle
Colditz Castle is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. Used as a workhouse for the indigent and a mental institution for over 100 years, it gained international fame as a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for...
), she restarted the Surrey Gliding Club, eventually moving it in 1951 to Lasham Airfield
Lasham Airfield
Lasham Airfield is located north-west of Alton in Hampshire, England, in the village of Lasham.It was built in 1942 and it was an operational RAF during the Second World War. It was used for recreational gliding from 1951. The airfield is now owned by the world's largest gliding club, Lasham...
. She trained many pilots and instructors while bringing up a young family, sometimes shouting instructions to a family member as she flew past in an open-cockpit glider. As well as being a member of the British team, Welch was an active volunteer to the British Gliding Association
British Gliding Association
The British Gliding Association is the governing body for gliding in the United Kingdom. Gliding in the United Kingdom operates through 85 gliding clubs which have 2,310 gliders and 9,462 full flying members , though a further 17,000 people have gliding air-experience flights each year.-History:A...
as vice chairman and in charge of British instructor standards and training for twenty years. She also managed the British Gliding Team for twenty years, and organised competitions including the World Gliding Championships
World Gliding Championships
The World Gliding Championships is a gliding competition held every two years or so by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are sometimes held in the summer in the Southern Hemisphere....
at South Cerney
South Cerney
South Cerney is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, 3 miles south of Cirencester and close to the border with Wiltshire. It had a population of 3,074 according to the 2001 census...
in 1965. Later, she was elected as delegate to the FAI's International Gliding Commission and acted as jury member at several World Gliding Championships.
For many years she and Philip Wills
Philip Wills
Philip Aubrey Wills CBE was a pioneering British glider pilot.-Early years:Philip Wills was from a wealthy family, and at the age of 21 he was able to buy his first aircraft, a de Havilland DH.60 Moth. On 20 January 1929 he was badly injured when his Moth crashed at Duxford Aerodrome, in which...
administered British gliding until the members felt that a change was needed. Conscious of the increasing cost of gliding and the need to involve young people, she moved away from gliding and became closely involved in the development of hang gliding
Hang gliding
Hang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider ....
and paragliding
Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...
, and was founder President of the FAI's Hang Gliding Commission and its Paragliding Commission, and was a member of the FAI's Microlight Commission. She became president of the British Hang Gliding Association and when in 1991, the hang-gliders and paragliders joined forces, Welch was appointed president of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association is the governing body in the UK for hang gliding and paragliding and is based in Leicester....
. In 1978 she was appointed the president of the British Microlight Aircraft Association. Her books on aviation are still widely admired and sought after. In all she flew over 150 types of aircraft.
Ann Welch was awarded the FAI Bronze Medal (1969), the Lilienthal Gliding Medal
Lilienthal Gliding Medal
Lilienthal Gliding Medal – the highest soaring award in the world, established by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1938 in honor of Otto Lilienthal, a German pioneer of human aviation. It aims "to reward a particularly remarkable performance in gliding, or eminent services to the sport of...
(1973) and the FAI Gold Air Medal (1980) in recognition of her devotion to the training and encouragement of young pilots. (With the Gold Medal she joined a group that included Otto Lilienthal
Otto Lilienthal
Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of human aviation who became known as the Glider King. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights. He followed an experimental approach established earlier by Sir George Cayley...
and Frank Whittle
Frank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...
.) In 1989 she was awarded the FIA's Pelagia Majewska Gliding Medal as an outstanding female glider pilot.
Her love of outdoor included sailing and studied the wind and tides. This was ultimately rewarded when in 1997 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation
Royal Institute of Navigation
The Royal Institute of Navigation is a British institution devoted to the art and science of navigation established in 1947.Its aims are to bring navigators together, to develop navigational techniques and to increase public awareness of navigation. It is based in Kensington, London. It was...
. From an early age she excelled in drawing and painting, and was a painter of note. She was appointed MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
in 1953 and advanced to OBE in 1966.
She married Graham Douglas in 1939, whose family owned Redhill Aerodrome
Redhill Aerodrome
Redhill Aerodrome is located southeast of Redhill, Surrey, England, in green belt land.Redhill Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee .-Early history:The airfield came into use in the...
and who had lent the club the £300 needed to buy the necessary gliders and a winch. This marriage was eventually dissolved and five years later she married Lorne Welch in 1953. Lorne Welch predeceased her but she was survived by her three daughters.
In 2005 the Ann Welch Award was instituted for outstanding contributions to instruction in air sports. It was first presented in 2006 at Royal Aero Club
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...
's Awards Ceremony.