A lost name in the history of pioneering women is that of Jackie Moggridge who achieved many firsts as a woman in the history of aviation. Born Dolores Theresa Sorour in Pretoria South Africa in March 1922, she decided to call herself Jackie after her childhood sports hockey-playing heroine, Jackie Rissik.
Jackie Moggridge started to fly at the young age of fifteen and soon achieved her ‘A’ flying licence and then went on to become the first woman to do a parachute jump at the age of seventeen. In 1938 she moved to the United Kingdom to gain her ‘B’ flying licence at the Aeronautical College at Witney, Oxford. Her enthusiasm for flying made her join the war effort as a recruit for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, initially based at a radar station in Rye, however, with evidence of her flying talent she was soon recruited to the Air Transport Auxiliary in July 1940 when she was the youngest of the female pilots at the time. In that role, she flew more than 1,500 aircraft of various types. For her war service, she was awarded the King’s Commendation for valuable service in the Air in 1945.
After the war, she married Reginald Moggridge with whom she had two daughters, but home life did not prevent her from flying. In 1949 she was recruited into the Women’s RAF Volunteer Reserve as a Pilot Officer and eventually gained her RAF wings in 1953, only the second woman to do so at the time. She went on to gain her commercial pilot’s licence and as such transported planes for the Indian Air Force, taking Spitfire airplanes from Cyprus to Rangoon. In 1958 she succeeded in securing a post as a pilot for Channel Airways, flying out of Southend Airport to the Isle of Wight, Jersey and Guernsey and so became the first woman to captain scheduled commercial passenger flights in the UK.
In her lifetime Jackie was awarded numerous accolades and created her own. In 1959 she was given the Jean Lennox Bird Trophy by the British Women Pilots’ Association (BWPA) for her efforts in furthering the cause of women in aviation and in her acceptance speech she was quoted as saying: “I long for the time when being a woman Captain would be commonplace.” She created the Jackie Moggridge Cup for women achieving excellent aeronautical qualifications and in posterity, a new trophy was commissioned in her name in 2021, called the BWPA Jackie Moggridge Cup, awarded to young women to inspire them to fly.
An autobiography she wrote in 1957 was revised and updated in 2014 and republished in paperback as ‘Spitfire Girl – My Life in the Sky’ in which she describes her trials and tribulations, successes and frustrations of her lifetime in flight. The book is described by others as an inspiring memoir of amazing, inspirational women. Her legacy is continued by her daughter, Candy Atkins, who gives talks in schools and at societies about Jackie Moggridge’s life to ensure that pioneering women, like Jackie who have been airbrushed out of the history books, are not forgotten, and will still inspire women into aviation.
by Ian Smith
April 2024
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