City’s very own Sheila was a national heroine

9:37am Monday 8th September 2008

IT’S always been a mystery why no one has ever made a film about the life and adventures of Sheila Scott. She was, after all, a national heroine, blond, glamorous, brave, daring and tough as old boots.

The daughter of a Worcester baker and a former model and actress, Sheila was named Britain’s Queen of the Air in the 1960s, when she held more than 100 world records for speed, endurance and long distance flying. She also won 50 flying trophies, was the first woman to fly over the North Pole and became Europe’s first woman pilot to fly solo around the world. She was even a subject of television’s This Is Your Life.

Now Sheila turns up as one of the stars of a new book called They Fly Through The Air with the Greatest of Ease – The 100 Greatest Women in Aviation History.

But something about this remarkable woman has failed to impress in the right quarters. For not only has the movie industry ignored her remarkable achievements – and as her later life was dogged by financial troubles the money would have come in handy – but suggestions Sheila Scott should have the Freedom of Worcester for the reflected glory she brought to the city fell on stoney ground.

Mind you the Freedom issue could have been personal. Sheila was the daughter of Harold Hopkins, who ran a large bakery and dairy business in Broad Street, and his first wife.

Mr Hopkins was a pillar of Worcester society, a long serving councillor and a city alderman. But her parents separated while young Sheila was a pupil at Alice Ottley School in The Tything and there were rumours she never got on with her stepmother when her father remarried.

Whatever the truth of that, after leaving school she moved to London to pursue an acting and modelling career and changed her name to Sheila Scott. For a long time she had little to do with the city of her birth and rarely returned. Her most high profile visit was at the height of her fame in 1972, when she was guest of honour at an Alice Ottley reception, her appearance ensuring a large turnout. She died in 1988 in London’s Royal Marsden Hospital at the age of 66 after a long battle against lung cancer. Many of her treasured mementos and trophies were sold to pay for her treatment.

Sheila’s launch into the world of aviation had its roots in a surprise her parents arranged for her eighth birthday. In 1930 Sir Alan Cobham’s famous Flying Circus visited Worcester and offered paid flights in his plane. The little girl was booked onboard and loved the experience. A lively, outgoing child, she became a top athlete at school and dreamed of being an Olympic gold medallist or maybe an actress. Flying, at that time, was not on the radar.

According to her autobiography I Must Fly, Sheila “drifted” into acting and modelling after the war, adopting the stage name Sheila Scott, which she retained for the rest of her life. A five-year marriage was dissolved.

However, it was not until 1959 that nostalgic recollections of her childhood flight came into play and Sheila stunned friends at a Sunday lunch by suddenly announcing: “I’m going to learn to fly.” She was 37 years old. Her considerable energies were then channelled into her new project with such success that she went on to win one trophy after another and to break no fewer than 104 flying records during the 1960s and early 1970s. Among the 50 trophies she collected was the De Haviland Cup, which she won on her first attempt at competing in the National Air Races of 1960, only a year after she began flying.

Sheila Scott’s record-breaking solo flight around the world in her singleengined Piper Comanche aircraft was in 1966, an epic 31,000-mile and 33-day journey that received media coverage wherever she landed. The following year she broke the London to Toronto record and was the first woman to fly solo over the North Pole. She also broke Amy Johnson’s London to Cape Town record and Jean Batten’s Australia to England record.

Sheila later underwent more training to gain British and American licences to fly commercial aircraft, helicopters, seaplanes and air balloons and became the first British woman civilian pilot to fly through the sound barrier.

Amid all the glory there were some frightening traumas, such as forced landings and engine problems, but fortunately no serious crashes.

In 1968, the US National Aviation Club conferred on her its Salute To Women award, and in the same year she was made an OBE. In 1971, she took part in experiments for the US Space Agency NASA and in 1974 was the subject of an Eamonn Andrews This is Your Life TV show.

So the acclaim and the honours stacked up.

Worcester City Council did make steps to catch the public mood when in 1969 it commissioned eminent local artist E Waldron West to paint her portrait. It used to hang in the Guildhall but now languishes out of sight in storage in the basement of the City Museum and Art Gallery in Foregate Street.

Maybe the time has come to dig it out, dust it off and display it once more. Worcester doesn’t have many heroines like Sheila Scott. In fact, I can’t think of another.

● They Fly Through The Air with the Greatest of Ease – The 100 Greatest Women in Aviation History by Liz Moscrop and Sanjay Rampal will be available in October from aerocomm.aero at £19.99.

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