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Mary, Lady Heath
Mary, Lady Heath.jpg
Born (1896-11-17)17 November 1896
Knockaderry, County Limerick
Died 9 May 1939(1939-05-09) (aged 42)
St Leonards's Hospital, Shoreditch, London
Resting place Surrey

Mary, Lady Heath (born Sophie Catherine Theresa Mary Peirce-Evans) was an amazing Irish aviator. She was born on November 17, 1896, in Knockaderry, County Limerick. For about five years in the mid-1920s, she was one of the most famous women in the world.

Early Life and Education

When Sophie Peirce-Evans was just one year old, her mother passed away. Her father faced legal troubles and was declared unwell. Sophie was then raised by her aunts at her grandfather's home in Newcastle West. Her aunts were not keen on her love for sports.

Sophie went to school in Cork, Belfast, and Dublin. She was very good at sports, especially hockey and tennis. After school, she joined the Royal College of Science for Ireland in Dublin. This college trained people to be educated farmers, which was important for the country back then.

Sophie was one of the few women at the college. She earned a top degree in science, focusing on agriculture. She also played on the college hockey team and wrote for a student magazine. After getting her degree, she moved to Kenya with her first husband, William Elliot-Lynn. In 1925, she even published a book of poems called East African Nights.

Amazing Careers

Sports Star

Before she became a pilot, Lady Heath was already a sports champion. During the First World War, she worked for two years delivering messages in England and France. She was one of the people who helped start the Women's Amateur Athletic Association in Britain in 1922.

Lady Heath was Britain's first women's javelin champion. She also set a world record in the high jump, though some people debated it. In 1925, she became a delegate for the International Olympic Committee. That same year, she started taking flying lessons.

She represented the United Kingdom in several international sports events. In 1923, she won third place in the high jump, javelin throw, and pentathlon at the Women's Olympiad in Monte Carlo. In 1924, she won a silver medal in the long jump at the Women's Olympiad. In 1926, she came fourth in javelin at the Women's World Games. She also wrote a coaching book called Athletics for women and girls in 1925. In 1928, she was a judge for England at the 1928 Summer Olympics, which was the first time women's athletics were included.

Flying High

The next year, Lady Heath made history again. She became the first woman in Britain to get a commercial flying licence. She set records for how high a small plane and a seaplane could fly. She was also the first woman to parachute from an airplane, landing right in the middle of a football game! After her big flight from Africa, she earned a mechanic's qualification in the US, becoming the first woman to do so.

This was a time when everyone was excited about flying, thanks to pilots like Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. Lady Heath was just as famous. People in the United States called her "Britain's Lady Lindy." She made headlines as the first pilot, male or female, to fly a small open-cockpit plane all the way from Cape Town to London (Croydon Aerodrome). She thought it would take three weeks, but it ended up taking three months, from January to May 1928.

You can see a small model of the plane Lady Mary used at The Little Museum of Dublin. She wrote about her flying adventures in a book called Woman and Flying. In July 1928, she even volunteered as a co-pilot for the airline KLM. She hoped to become the first woman pilot for a commercial airline, but the world wasn't quite ready for female airline pilots yet.

At the peak of her fame, Lady Heath (who married Sir James Heath in October 1927) was badly hurt in a plane crash in 1929. This happened just before the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio. After her accident, Lady Heath was never quite the same.

After her divorce in 1930, she returned to Ireland with her third husband, G.A.R. Williams, who was a horseman and pilot. She got involved in private aviation, even running her own company for a short time in the mid-1930s. She also helped train new pilots who would later help start Ireland's national airline, Aer Lingus.

Personal Life

Her Marriages

Lady Heath's first marriage was to Major William Eliot Lynn. She was known as Mrs. Eliot Lynn during this time. After her divorce from him and his passing in 1927, she married Sir James Heath on October 11, 1927, in Mayfair, London. In January 1930, she filed for divorce from Sir James Heath. On November 12, 1931, she married her third husband, G.A.R. Williams, in Lexington, Kentucky, United States.

Her Final Flight

On May 9, 1939, Lady Heath passed away at the age of 42 in St Leonard's Hospital, Shoreditch, London. This happened after she fell inside a double-decker tram. Doctors believed an old injury might have caused her fall, and the jury decided it was an accidental death.

According to newspaper reports, her ashes were scattered over Surrey from an aircraft flown by her estranged husband on May 15, 1939. However, some stories say her ashes were returned to Ireland and scattered over her hometown of Newcastle West.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Sophie Eliott-Lynn para niños

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