Life Story

Eleanor Lettice Curtis was born on 1

st

February, 1915 at Denbury

Manor near Newton Abbot, Devon.

She was a sporty child, enjoying tennis, squash, fencing and

lacrosse. She was educated first at Benenden School in Kent

before reading mathematics at St. Hilda’s College in Oxford. At

univerrsity she developed her competitive spirit further earning a

triple blue in fencing, lacrosse and tennis in 1933.

After she graduated in 1936 Lettice and a group f friends travelled

to North America up to Vancouver. On her return she was

considering her options for employment and flying struck her as a

choice that wasn’t office bound and agreed with her spirit of

adventure. She first learned how to manoeuvrer a plane at the

Yapton Flying Club, which was located near Chichester. After being

schooled with the basics of flight, she gained her RAeC licence on

10

th

July 1937 in a moth Cirrus II. Lettice then flew an additional 100

solo hours to obtain her commercial B license in April 1938.

Lettice found a position with CL Aerial Surveys who were contracted

to the Ordnance Survey to photograph areas of Britian to update

maps. The plane had a basic auto-pilot and her job was to fly, take

the photos and then sort them on the ground. Her flying hours

increased and she covered the Midlands and north as far as York.