The two decades following World War I were the golden age of expanding air routes. The solo flight of Colonel Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic Ocean set in motion a succession of distance and record flights which were splashed in banner headlines across the front pages of contemporary newspapers. Among the pioneers of aviation were many women such as Amelia Earhart, Amy Mollison (nee Johnson) and Jean Batten; but it was during the hectic years of World War II that the first woman was to fly a jet plane. From the information at my disposal it would seem that she was Captain Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp, an unsung and comparatively unknown heroine. In August 1945 she flew a Meteor, the type which later regained the world speed record for Great Britain.
Born at Bonnefoi in the Carolina District, Transvaal, in 1907, Rosamund Everard was the second daughter of C.J. Everard and his artist wife, Bertha King. She was the niece of Edith King and the younger sister to Ruth Everard King who together became known as the Evarard Group. Her father was a progressive trader and farmer in the area. She was educated at Eunice Girls’ High School, Bloemfontein, in England and in Paris where she studied the violin under Thibaud. As an idealist, in search of truth and beauty, her music lifted her up to sing among the clouds and inspired her with a passion for flying. As she wrote in her diary, `I sometimes felt I was walking on the clouds.’
Rosamund, however received no formal art tuition. She received most of her training from her mother and a period spent in avant-garde circles in Paris. She began to paint with her mother and sister when they traveled to France and Italy.
In 1926 Rosamund returned to the family farms in Mpumalanga and concentrated her energy on farming at which she became very successful. In addition, she qualified as an official judge of Ayrshire cattle and as a wool classer. She was an excellent rider and shotist and spoke French and isiSwazi.
Rosamund painted landscapes and still life in oils. Her style of painting was unconventional, spontaneous and exuberant and her work reflects her attraction to decorative patterns and design. Her use of colour was strong, defined and controlled by definite rhythmic outlines. She was not as prolific as the other painters in her family.
Her work was shown in the first annual Exhibition of Contemporary National Art staged by the SA Art Gallery in co-operation with SASA in 1931. Her painting Kameldoorn in Winter provoked snide comment from art critic Bernard Lewis, who dismissed it as a “poster”, which by “no stretch of charitable intention could be called a picture” (The Cape, 18.12.31). Flowers on a Window Sill (1930), with its flattened areas of colour, would have elicited a similar response. Although at times highly critical of SASA itself, Lewis reflected the conservative tastes of the time. After this skirmish with him, Everard-Steenkamp later joined the New Group in 1938. Her work formed part of the Everard Group exhibitions of 1931 and 1935 and featured in the retrospective exhibitions held at the Tatham Art Gallery in 1982 and the Standard Bank sponsored exhibition of 2000 entitled ‘The Everard Phenomenon’.
She took up flying with her brother Sebastian, when they returned to the farm with its panoramic views of the limitless, rolling Transvaal veld where great billowing thunderheads came rolling over the green, green grass and the rain-washed sky was intensely blue. She divided her time between farming, flying and painting with her mother, aunt and sister.
In 1935 she and her brother had their own Puss Moth aircraft and by 1937 she was flying regularly and toured Europe in a Hornet Moth. She flew over Mount Pilatus after only 100 hours flying time to her credit. After qualifying for a commercial `B’ licence she took part in the Empire Air Display at Hendon, London, where she met Tommy Rose and Jean Batten. A solo tour of Europe and North Africa culminated in an official reception in Ankara where she was the guest of Kemal Ataturk.
After gaining her Navigator’s and Instructor’s licences, she was commissioned to fly aircraft to Kenya for delivery to Brigadier Lewin (later head of the Red Cross). Her flight was solo via Tripoli, Cairo, Wadi Halfa and Atbara to Nairobi where her brother met her. They took part in the air display at Njoro and then flew home via the East Coast in their own plane.
By 1939 she had obtained the South African `B’ Licence and Instructor’s III and IV. When World War II broke out she was official Instructor at the Witwatersrand Technical College and trained many pupil pilots who later distinguished themselves in the South African Air Force.
Rosamund was commissioned with the rank of captain and posted to 61 Squadron where she was engaged in instruction in addition to a variety of flying duties. By 1942 she and a fellow woman pilot, Rhenia Slabbert (Mrs Blake), were flying Lodestars on shuttle service between South Africa and Cairo. At the end of the year she suffered a great personal bereavement in the death of her husband, Captain H.N.F. Steenkamp, SAAF, whom she had taught to fly. This loss made her all the more determined to realize her ambition to form an all-women flying ambulance unit to operate in the war theatre. Her efforts in this direction met with official disapproval.
Hearing that the Russians employed women pilots, she decided to join the Russian Air Force. Getting a lift from the USAAF, she proceeded to Teheran, the wartime communication centre between the Russians and the Allies.
At the Russian military headquarters, she met nothing but suspicion and distrust. Air Commodore Runciman and the British Ambassador, Sir Reader Bullard, with whom she lunched advised her that, even if the Russians did accept her, they would not give her the work she wanted to do but would callously try to break her spirit. Thus, all her dreams and schemes to achieve a more effective role for women pilots in the war were once again frustrated.
In 1944 she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying many types of aircraft to the operational bases. The ATA girls used only their handbooks and were given the most meagre instruction before flying a new type of plane coming off the production lines. By this time Rosamund had well over 3 500 hours flying on active service and had flown almost every type of aircraft produced. Her logbook lists light aircraft such as Mile Magister, Tiger Moth, Fairchild Argus, up to twin engined Hudsons, Albermarles, Wellingtons and Mosquitos as well as operational fighters such as Hellcats, Spitfires, Typhoons and Hurricanes. She also flew even larger aircraft such as Catalina flying boats and Stirling four engined bombers.
Steenkamp went solo in Spitfire MkV. See Logbook entry from 23 May 1944.
Towards the end of the war the first jet planes were in the experimental stages. Wing Commander H. Bird-Wilson asked Rosamund to fly the Meteor III to show that `even a woman could do it’. She accepted the challenge and, although she had the throttle only partly open, cruised at 600 km per hour. Her logbook records the flight with the succinct remark `Wizard!’ The flight took place on 3 August 1945 at Molesworth and was in Meteor III EE313. ‘The Rosamund Everard Steenkamp Floating Trophy’ was awarded annually post WWII after the re-formation of the Women’s Aviation Association by the Aero Club of South Africa for the most meritorious deed performed by a woman aviator. The Trophy represents Rosamund Everard Steenkamp’s flight in Meteor III EE313. A half-size miniature of the trophy is currently on display at the SAAF Museum at AFB Swartkop.
After the war was over and she was due to return to South Africa, she was delivering a Spitfire XIV from Hamble to Ercall when, for no apparent reason, she dived, levelled out at about 10 metres and crashed at high speed. She was killed instantly. The accident happened at Littlewick Green, 5 km west of Maidenhead, in Berkshire. There was low cloud at the time. As with her American counterpart, Amelia Earhart, there was no accounting for the tragedy. Rosumund was 33 years old at the time and had over 4000 flying hours to her credit.
Ken Smy of the SAAF Museum contributed this section on Steenkamps death crash:
During a visit to UK last year I went down to Twyford near Maidenhead to see Andy Heape and his wife. (Andy was secretary of the Friends many years ago). During lunch I mentioned that Rosamund was reported as being buried in a cemetery in Maidenhead, so Andy suggested that we go and see if we could find the grave. We went to a large cemetery in All Saint’ Road and after about ten minutes we came across her grave along with several other ATA personnel. Sadly it was in a rather neglected part of the cemetery but I took a few photos anyway. I mentioned to Andy that she is reported as being killed in a crash at Littlewick Green which is between Maidenhead and Twyford, so we went there on the way back to Andy’s house. It was a small typical English village often used in TV shows. I then suggested that there must have been a report of the accident in the local newspaper at the time, so Andy said he would go to the Maidenhead library and see what he could find. Andy wrote later to say that he could find no reference to a crash in the local press but found a funeral notice which stated that she was killed when the Spitfire she was delivering crashed into some trees near her designation. (Maidenhead Advertiser Wednesday 27 March 1946)
On returning home I found a large scale map of southern England and drew a straight line on the map form Hamble to High Ercall to where she was delivering the Spitfire in which she was killed, I was surprised to see that Littlewick Green was some 60 km to the east of this line! I remembered that there were articles in the Air Britain magazine Aeromilitaria on postwar RAF accidents and looked up the date in the copies in the Museum library.
On 19 March 1946, it records Spitfire XIV NH695 of No 1 FP flew into trees near Upper Arly in Shropshire. Referring back to my map I found that Upper Arly was some 50 kms south east of High Ercall and about 3 kms east of my straight line. A few days later I wrote to a friend of mine who was interested in RAF accidents and he sent me details from a publication “Final Landings” recording details of RAF accidents in the early postwar period taken from official RAF accidents record cards. The details on the card stated “19 Mar 46 NH695 Spitfire XIV IFP crashed Upper Arley Shropshire. The aircraft was being flown below the authorized height for the sortie and it struck the tops of some 20 foot high trees. It then hit the ground and disintegrated Mrs Everard-Steenkamp came from Moedig in the Transvaal South Africa.”
It is well known that she flew a Gloster Meteor whilst she was in UK with the ATA but her logbook shows that she also flew a DH Vampire Mk1 TG300 on 22 February 1946.
Below are the two maps referred to in the article.
It is significant that she met her end as a Spitfire pilot and thus emulated some of the immortals of the Battle of Britain in her own `finest hour’. Of Rosamund Everard Steenkamp, talented musician, artist, agriculturist and flyer, it may be said, `Whom the gods love, die young.’
Steenkamp’s Aircraft
As mentioned in this article she flew many aircraft that the Royal Air Force had in its inventory as she made deliveries around England. What is interesting is that she delivered several Spitfires from Castle Bromwich, the factory where 5518 was built, but alas not 5518. Below is a list of the types of aircraft that she flew which I harvested from her General Record as of 31 October 1945:
Magister, Fairchild, Proctor, Harvard, Hurricane, Spitfire, Oxford, Barracuda, Dominie, Master types, Mustang, Moth variants, Hudson, Albemarle, Anson, Auster, Beaufighter, Douglas variants, Reliant, Wellington types, Whitley, Hellcat, Mosquito, Typhoon, Wildcat, Avenger, Dakota, Mitchell, Tempest, Monarch, and Vengeance.
She flew Spitfire solo in a MkV. She added the following marks, in order of first appearance in her logbook, Vb, IX, XVI, XIV, XXII, I, VIII, XVIII We are spoilt for the choice of colour schemes for this car. Any European Spitfire colour scheme from 1944 – 1946. Or if we want to broaden the options there are 29 other aircraft types schemes available that will all be true to this amazing woman.
As mentioned in this article she flew many aircraft that the Royal Air Force had in its inventory as she made deliveries around England. What is interesting is that she delivered several Spitfires from Castle Bromwich, the factory where 5518 was built, but alas not 5518. Below is a list of the types of aircraft that she flew which I harvested from her General Record as of 31 October 1945:
Magister, Fairchild, Proctor, Harvard, Hurricane, Spitfire, Oxford, Barracuda, Dominie, Master types, Mustang, Moth variants, Hudson, Albemarle, Anson, Auster, Beaufighter, Douglas variants, Reliant, Wellington types, Whitley, Hellcat, Mosquito, Typhoon, Wildcat, Avenger, Dakota, Mitchell, Tempest, Monarch, and Vengeance.
She flew Spitfire solo in a MkV. She added the following marks, in order of first appearance in her logbook, Vb, IX, XVI, XIV, XXII, I, VIII, XVIII We are spoilt for the choice of colour schemes for this car. Any European Spitfire colour scheme from 1944 – 1946. Or if we want to broaden the options there are 29 other aircraft types schemes available that will all be true to this amazing woman.
The above two pages from Steenkamps’ Logbook cover 1½ months flying. Many Spitfires and many other aircraft. On June 1st, 12th (twice), 15th and 16th for example she flew from the CB, the factory where 5518 was manufactured.
Bibliography:
Logbook
- Everard Steenkamp, Rosumund. Logbook, Kindly made available by the SAAF Museum Swartkop.
Journals
- Major Majorie Egerton Bird and Molly Botes, 1982. Flying High: The History of the Women’s Auxillary Air Force 1939-1945, Military History Journal Vol 5 No 5, The South African Military History Society.
- Rev C Scott Shaw, 1976. Was Captain Rosamund Everard-Steenkamp the first woman in the world to fly a jet? Military History Journal Vol 3 No 5, The South African Military History Society
- Rev C Scott Shaw, 1975. Rosamund Everard-Steenkamp Pilot Extraordinary, World Airnews October 1975 Page 47
Internet
- Http://www.lifewithart.com/artists/rosamund-everard.html, Rosamund King Everard Steenkamp Retrieved January 2006
- http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/Steenkamp%20-%20RE.htm, Rosamund-Everard Steenkamp Retrieved January 2006