The Spitfire Girl

SIR – I first met my dear friend Mary Ellis when she took command of Sandown Airport in the Fifties (“Wartime ‘Atagirl’ who flew Spitfires, Wellingtons and Hurricanes to RAF airfields around Britain”, Obituary, July 27).

Her active flying days over, she ran the airfield with great humour, though if anybody breached aerodrome discipline her incisive reprimand could reduce an errant pilot to tears.

Her love of fun singled her out. Often, on a summer’s evening, she would organise an impromptu race in the dark, with the person fastest round the runway standing drinks.

I kept my home-built single-seat aircraft on the field for a long time, but was never allowed to pay a penny. So long as I flew it a bit to amuse visiting holidaymakers, she was content. In return, I amused myself driving the tractor and mower to clip the runway when she was too busy to do it herself.

She wore her wartime Air Transport Auxiliary achievements lightly, and few holidaymakers who thronged the clubhouse in the evening knew her as other than the jovial barmaid. Arthur WJG Ord-hume

Guildford, Surrey