Amy Johnson

Statue outside Prospect Centre, Prospect Street, HU2 8PW. Grid B2

Amy Johnson was born in Hull in July 1903. She attended Boulevard Secondary School and then achieved a BA (Economics) at Sheffield University, returning to Hull to work as a secretary. She gained her pilot’s licence in July 1929, and persuaded her father, alongside oil magnate Lord Wakefield, to buy a second hand Gypsy Moth aeroplane, which she named Jason after her family’s fish processing business trademark. Amy became the first woman to fly alone the 11,000 miles to Australia, taking off from Croydon Airport on 5 May 1930 and landing in Darwin on 24 May. She was also the first British-trained woman and the only woman in the world at the time, to qualify as a ground engineer. During World War II, Amy ferried aircraft from factories to RAF bases, as a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary. During one of these flights in 1941, she crashed in the River Thames; her body was never recovered.