Life Story
Ethel was born Ethel Ruth Nicholson to parents Captain William
Henry Nicholson and Sybil Wigham. She was boring in Woking and
was educated at Roedean school in Brighton, after which she
attended finishing school in France. After this she decided against
university and went to work as a welding engineer for the Arc
Manufacturing Company based in Shepherd’s Bush, London, and
this was listed as her profession in the 1939 Register. She married
her first husband John Lambton in March 1934, and they had one
son – Peter.
She had the same spirt of adventure as many of the ATA female
pilots. Ethel learned to fly at in France without her parents
knowledge, and used to fly off on trips with other female friends –
She travelled to Budapest in 1937 with the Hon. Ruth Cokayne in a
Gypsy Moth (above). They stopped off in Frankfurt in their return,
where apparently their possessions were confiscated, but they were
then taken to the Officers Mess, “where the entire squadron shook
our hands with the utmost solemnity, clicked heels, Heiled Hitler and
gave us lunch! Another round of handshakes, our belongings were
duly returned to us, and we Heiled Hitler gratefully ourselves as we
took off ”
1
1 https://www.ata-ferry-pilots.org/index.php/category-blog-1940/158-lambton-ethel-ruth?
highlight=WyJsYW1idG9uIl0=