Hill, Dame Felicity – was commander at RAF Spitalgate

Dame Felicity Hill (B1915)

Dame Felicity Hill joined the 1,734 strong WAAF at Farnborough aerodrome in 1939. The Navy were unable to process her application fast enough so she joined the RAF along with her friends.

She was lucky that the man in charge of height measuring was sympathetic because Dame Felicity was half an inch short of the required height. He read out her height with the requisite half inch added.

She became an equipment assistant but failed her first officers’ board in 1940 because she was ‘too young’ at the age of 23!

However, she was promoted to corporal and became a new entrant instructor at West Drayton. However, the constant air raids disrupted the trainees’ sleep so much they had to move the training centre to the safety of Harrogate.

Early entrants, such as Dame Felicity who showed leadership potential, soon moved up the promotion ladder. After officer promotion she was posted to RAF Wyton, a bomber station.

In 1944, she was attached to the Polish Section, Directorate of Allied Air Forces Liaison. She was sent to France in February 1945 to recruit Polish Displaced Persons (DP) for the Polish Air Force Squadrons.

After the peace treaty with Germany was signed, Dame Felicity served with Occupational Forces in Germany at Hamburg.

After various roles in Germany and the UK, Dame Felicity was demobilised in the summer of 1947 but immediately re-enlisted.

There followed tours to Malaysia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Hong Kong before returning to the UK and many roles there.

Dame Felicity became the Station Commander at RAF Spitalgate, Grantham from 1959 to 61.

She said: “That was very interesting. People used to ask me if there was a problem with a woman commanding men; ‘Surely men would rebel against serving under a woman’. I daresay there was some truth in this. My answer was ‘A man who is so confident in himself, that he doesn’t even have to think about it, is most unlikely to be worried about working for a woman'”.

From there, she was appointed Deputy Director of the WRAF (1961 – 1964)

Inspector WRAF attached to the Inspectorate General at RAF Uxbridge during which period she visited the Far East (1964 – 1966) and Director WRAF (1966 – 1969)

In 1966, Dame Felicity also became ADC to the Queen.

She retired to Winchester, where she celebrated her 100th birthday in December 2015.