Blue plaque to remember trailblazing female pilot
A blue plaque to trailblazing female pilot Barbara Harmer was unveiled in Felpham last week, marking the completion of a village heritage trail years in the making.
Unveiled last Wednesday at Felpham Sailing Club, parish councillor and organiser of the heritage trail Kevin Watson said it was an ‘incredible’ day, with friends, family and colleagues of Barbara’s, who died in 2011, jetting in from all over the country.
"The conversations people were having were amazing,” he said. “There were Concorde pilots there, there were engineers, people from Barbara’s family. And, bearing in mind the weather, it’s really impressive. Some people had to drive through rain and snow to get down here. So the turnout was fantastic.”
Born in Felpham in 1953, Barbara would go on to become the first woman to fly a Concorde jet – making history when she flew from London to New York on March 25, 1993, having qualified a few months earlier.
Having first discovered her love of the sea here in Bognor
Regis, she also qualified as a yacht-master, and took part in a range of international competitions after she retired from commercial piloting. Prior to her untimely death, she was preparing for a transatlantic trip in her very own yacht, the Archaumbault 35.
Mr Watson said last week’s function served as a reunion for some of the most important people in Barbara’s life.
"It was like all these friends were reunited – all these former colleagues who hadn’t seen each other for years came together and had tea and cake at the sailing club.
"Barbara was incredible – she became a Concorde pilot in a male dominated industry where most women only got to work as air stewards. She had to break through that. And, on top of that, she became a yachtmaster who went around winning races on these huge boats.”
Last week’s unveiling finishes a heritage trail which seeks to celebrate some of the most famous and influential people to have ever lived in the village. Barbara Harmer joins fight scene choreographer Bob Anderson, world-famous poet William Blake and Antarctic explorer Ernest Joyce as one of the many figures to have been featured in the trail.