A PIONEERING female RAF pilot has celebrated her 100th birthday in Headbourne Worthy.

Air Commodore (Retd) Dame Felicity Hill, marked the milestone last Saturday at The Dower House Nursing Home.

Dame Felicity was the RAF’s first female Air Commodore after the Women's Auxiliary Air Force became the WRAF.

When asked what message she would give the personnel of the RAF today, she said: “I believe that women in the RAF are still considered equal, as we were, and more so now as we have women fighter and helicopter aircrew. A remarkable achievement compared to my day.

“Since 1939 the RAF has regarded women as capable as men to do the job and have carried that on in today’s RAF. So it was a very good career for women then and is still the same today”.

In recognition of the feat, Air Vice Marshal Sue Gray surprised Dame Felicity at the party and presented her with a bouquet.

AVM Gray said: “I was delighted to be asked to attend Dame Felicity’s 100th on behalf of the RAF.

“Her achievement set a precedent that many women, like myself, have been able to follow. Women can reach the top in any trade with the RAF thanks to women like Dame Felicity,” she added. Dame Felicity joined the then 1,734-strong WAAF at Farnborough aerodrome in 1939 and served until 1969.

The Navy were unable to process her application fast enough so she joined the RAF along with her friends. Dame Felicity was lucky that the man in charge of height measuring was sympathetic because she was half an inch short of the required height.

He read out her height with the requisite half inch added. “I probably should never have got in” she laughed.

She became an equipment assistant under the eye of Sgt Barrett, a “redhead with the temper to match, who thought we were la-de-dah females who would sit on the counter and chat up the equipment officer.”

He banned them to menial jobs in the stores. The Sgt eventually realised he needed Dame Felicity and her friend’s help up front and they both came to know the joys of “triplicate paperwork”, issuing anything from pants to revolvers.

“You must understand that we were all keen to do our duty and dedicate our lives to King and country. I expect that everyone would be the same if it happened again”.

She failed her first officers’ board in 1940 because she was ‘too young’ at the age of 23. However, she was promoted to Cpl and became an entrant instructor at West Drayton. However, the constant air raids disrupted the trainees’ sleep so much they had to move the training centre to the safety of Harrogate. For the permanent staff there was a ‘sense of grievance’ at being removed from the front line at West Drayton. Most spent their “rare and precious” weekend passes visiting friends in London “in order to be bombed.”

The WAAF numbers were 2,700 strong in April 1941, with 110,000 a year later and 180,000 by the end of ’43. The women were expected to perform in the ‘hectic and demanding man’s world”. Early entrants, such as Dame Felicity who showed leadership potential, soon moved up the promotion ladder. “After officer promotion I was posted to RAF Wyton, a bomber station where I experienced my first military funeral. One of our bombers limped back and crashed just short of the airfield”.