Felicity Peake

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Dame Felicity Peake
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Relations

DBE (née Watts; 1 May 1913 – 2 November 2002) was the founding director of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) She started flying when her first husband took up the hobby in 1935, but in 1946 became the first director of the WRAF. She was Honorary Aide-de-camp to King George VI
from 1949 to 1950.

Early years and career

Peake spent much of her youth at

First World War. Her father, Colonel Humphrey Watts, was a prosperous Manchester
-based industrialist whose family's wealth derived from S & J Watts, a textile business founded in 1798.

Peake was educated at St. Winifred's,

Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co brewing family (whose hobby was flying), while on a cruise to the West Indies. They were married at St Margaret's, Westminster in 1935[1] and she was known as Felicity Hanbury; that same year she qualified for her pilot's licence.[1]

With war looming, Jock Hanbury joined the auxiliary air force as a fighter pilot, but Felicity was prevented from joining the

Member of the Order of the British Empire.[3]

In January 1941, Peake joined the

Lloyds Bank
and the Steel Company of Wales, whom she married in 1952.

Berlin Airlift
in 1948. She is following The Duchess of Gloucester, Commander in Chief BAFO, Sir Thomas Williams and WRAF Command Staff Officer, Group Officer Conan Doyle as they inspect the WRAF contingent at Gatow.

During her time at the Air Ministry, Peake forged lasting friendships with many of the most senior RAF officers – friendships that she used to great effect in retirement when furthering the interests of the

Cairo. She became the Director of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force on 12 October 1946 with the rank of Air Commandant (Air Commodore)..[4]

Post-WAAF

The Best Cadet receives her certificate from Air Marshal Sir Arthur Sanders and Air Commandant Dame Felicity Hanbury, Director of the Women's Royal Air Force, at Hawkinge, circa 1949–1950

As the last director of the WAAF, and the first director of the WRAF in February 1949,

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
in 1949.

Following her retirement in 1950, Peake joined the board of the Truman, Hanbury and Buxton brewery, a job she described in her memoirs, Pure Chance (1993), as "sheer bliss": there was no "buck passing", no red tape, and she could get things done. She and her husband, Harald, bought a farm in Oxfordshire, where they bred pedigree Ayrshires and Jerseys, and a house in the south of France.

Appointed a trustee of the Imperial War Museum in 1963, she was its chairman from 1986 to 1988. She founded the Friends of the Imperial War Museum, later becoming its president.[1]

Family

Her husband Harald was knighted in the 1973 New Year Honours and died in 1978. Dame Felicity died in 2002, aged 89; she was survived by their son, Andrew.[5][6]

Peake's father, Colonel Humphrey Watts, was the brother of British businessman James Watts, who married

Margaret Miller, sister of author Agatha Christie. They had one child, Conservative party politician and member of Parliament for Manchester Moss Side James Watts, who was Peake's cousin.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Obituary, Guardian.co.uk; accessed 5 April 2016.
  2. ISSN 0307-1235
    . Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  3. ^ "Felicity Peake – A Widow's Tale or How an Air Commodore also founded the IWM Friends". volunteer london blog. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Air Commandant Dame Felicity Peake | Women of the Air Force | Online Exhibitions | Exhibitions & Displays | Research | RAF Museum". rafmuseum.org.uk. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  5. ^ Obituary, lifeinlegacy.com; accessed 5 April 2016.
  6. ISSN 0140-0460
    . Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  7. ^ Condell, Diana (11 November 2002). "Obituary: Air Commodore Dame Felicity Peake". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2020.

External links

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