Mary Bell
Aviator
Died when: 75 years 65 days (902 months)Star Sign: Sagittarius
Mary Teston Luis Bell (3 December 1903 – 6 February 1979) was an Australian aviator and founding leader of the Women's Air Training Corps (WATC), a volunteer organisation that provided support to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II.
She later helped establish the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), the country's first and largest women's wartime service, which grew to more than 18,000 members by 1944.
Born Mary Fernandes in Tasmania, Bell married a RAAF officer in 1923 and obtained her pilot's licence in 1927.Given temporary command of the WAAAF on its formation in 1941, she was passed over as its inaugural director in favour of corporate executive Clare Stevenson.
Bell refused the post of deputy director and resigned, but subsequently rejoined and served until the final months of the war.
She and her husband later became farmers.Nicknamed "Paddy", Bell died in 1979, aged seventy-five.
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