Margaret (Runciman) Fairweather (1901 - 1944)

Born 23 Sep 1901 in Castle Ward, Northumberland, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of Douglas Keith Fairweather — married 1938 (to 1944) in Blythswood, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 4 Aug 1944 at age 42 in Chester, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Margaret Runciman was born on 23 Sep 1901^[1].

She had married Roderick Nettleton King-Farlow in July 1925. Their daughter Ann was born in 1931, but they divorced in 1936, and she then married Douglas Keith Fairweather in March 1938. He was a businessman from Glasgow, and her complete opposite - outgoing, irreverent, and very eccentric.

In Memory of THE HON MARGARET FAIRWEATHER Flight Captain Air Transport Auxiliary who died on Friday, 4th August 1944. Age 42. Additional Information: Daughter of the Rt. Hon. Walter Runciman, P.C., D.C.L., LL.D., J.P., 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, and of the Viscountess Runciman of Doxford, J.P. (nee Stevenson), of Doxford, Northumberland; wife of Capt. Douglas Keith Fairweather, Air Tpt. Aux. Sec. E. (White) Commemorative Information Cemetery: DUNURE CEMETERY, Ayrshire, United Kingdom Grave Reference/ Panel Number: Joint grave 295.

On January 1, 1940, the ATA officially accepted the "First Eight" into service: Winifred Crossley, Margaret Cunnison, Margaret Fairweather, Mona Friedlander, Joan Hughes (the youngest, at 21), Gabrielle Patterson, Rosemary Rees, and Marion Wilberforce. All these women were highly experienced, each having more than 600 hours of flying time, and seven were rated flying instructors. Pauline, at 29, was younger than most of the women she commanded. Yet she was a natural leader, and capably shouldered the responsibilities of her office. With the end of the Blitz in May, 1941, the RAF went fully on the offensive--just in time for summer, the peak period for aerial operations. The ferrying demands for fighters and bombers would soon be far beyond the capacity of the male ATA pilots, so the women were at last cleared to fly Class 2 Aircraft, Hurricanes and Spitfires. Four of the First Eight, Winnie Crossley, Margie Fairweather, Joan Hughes, and Rosemary Rees, took that first leap on July 19, 1941. Each did a short solo flight in a Hurricane, at their home base at Hatfield. Several more women checked out on Hurricanes over the next few weeks. http://www.motherflieshurricanes.com/historyATA.htm Article at http://collections.civilisations.ca/warclip/pages/warclip/Results

Buried in Dunure Cemetery, Dunure, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Plot: Sec. E (White) joint grave 295

Sources

1. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2FCY-ZP5 : 1 October 2014), Margaret Runciman, 1901; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Castle Ward, Northumberland, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.

• http://www.motherflieshurricanes.com/historyATA.htm
• afleetingpeace.org profile

Article at http://collections.civilisations.ca/warclip/pages/warclip/Results

Find A Grave: Memorial #70916467