# Ann Welch

Ann Courtenay Welch OBE, née Edmonds, (20 May 1917 – 5 December 2002) was a pilot who received the Gold Air Medal from Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) for her contributions to the development of four air sports - gliding, hang gliding, paragliding and microlight flying.
She flew as a ferry pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War.

## Early life

Ann Courtney Edmonds was born in London, the daughter of a railway engineer. As a child, she kept a diary listing every aeroplane that flew over the house. She first flew with Alan Cobham in 1930. After she had acquired a motorbike to visit the local aerodrome, she learned to fly, earning her pilot's licence in 1934 one month after her seventeenth birthday. From an early age she excelled in drawing and painting, and was a painter of note.

## Gliding activity

She started gliding in 1937 and attended an Anglo-German Fellowship Camp at the London Gliding Club meeting Wolf Hirth and Hanna Reitsch followed by a return visit to Germany in 1938.
She restarted the Surrey Gliding Club in 1938 at Redhill, Surrey, becoming their Chief Flying Instructor and achieving a membership of over 100.
In 1939 she married Flight Lieutenant (later Wing Commander) Graham Douglas.

## World War II

When the Second World War broke out, Ann enrolled in the Air Transport Auxiliary, on 1 December 1940, reaching the rank of Pilot First Officer. She was able to ferry many types of aircraft including Spitfires, Hurricanes, Blenheims and Wellingtons from the factories to their operational units.
She stopped this work on 19 August 1942 shortly before the birth of her first daughter. In 1943 under the name "A. C. Douglas" she published Cloud Reading for Pilots. The book, quite unique at the time, remains an excellent introduction on the use of cloud observations in assessing the state of the atmosphere.

## Gliding

After the war Ann returned to gliding and, with Lorne Welch and Walter Morison (two former prisoners at Colditz Castle), restarted the Surrey Gliding Club at Redhill airfield. The Surrey Club moved in 1951 to Lasham Airfield and its gliding activities expanded because other clubs were also based at Lasham. At this time she divorced her first husband and married Lorne Welch.
She trained many pilots and instructors while bringing up a young family and For twenty years she was in charge of the British Gliding Association's panel of examiners responsible for instructor standards and training.
She was an avid cross-country pilot and became a member of the British team at World Gliding Championships for many years. Flying from Lezno in Poland in 1961, she broke the British women's distance record with 528km.
Her books on aviation are still widely admired and she flew over 150 types of aircraft.

## Administration

Ann was Vice Chair of the British Gliding Association for several years. She also managed the administration of the British Gliding Team for some twenty years.
She also was involved in organising competitions including the World Gliding Championships at South Cerney in 1965, for which she was elevated to the position of Chairman for the duration of the competition.
Later, she was UK Delegate to the FAI's International Gliding Commission and acted as jury member at several World Gliding Championships.
For many years she and Philip Wills administered British gliding until the members felt that newer people were required. She was succeeded as the BGA Delegate to IGC by the Chair at the time of the current BGA Competitions Committee Ian Strachan.
She then moved away from gliding and used her background and talents in the development of hang gliding and paragliding.
She became founder President of no less than two new FAI Commissions. There were the FAI Hang Gliding Commission and its Paragliding Commission.
She was also was a member of the FAI's Microlight Commission.
She became president of the British Hang Gliding Association and when in 1991, the hang-gliders and paragliders joined forces, Welch was appointed president of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.
In 1978 she was appointed the president of the British Microlight Aircraft Association, a position she held until her death, working actively for the association including attending as a member of their governing council.

## Awards and honours

She was awarded the FAI Bronze Medal (1969) and the Lilienthal Gliding Medal (1973) (only the fourth woman to be awarded it following Marcelle Choisnet (1951), Pelagia Majewska (1960) and Anne Burns (1966)).
She received the FAI Gold Air Medal (1980) in recognition of her devotion to the training and encouragement of young pilots. (With the Gold Medal she joined a group that included Yuri Gagarin and Frank Whittle.)
In 1989 she was awarded the FAI's Pelagia Majewska Gliding Medal as an outstanding female glider pilot.
She was appointed MBE in 1953 and advanced to OBE in 1966. In 1996 she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club.
Her love of outdoor activities included sailing and she studied the wind and tides. This was rewarded when in 1997 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.
In 2005, the Ann Welch Award was instituted for outstanding contributions to instruction in air sports. It was first presented in 2006 at Royal Aero Club's Awards Ceremony.
Also in 2006, the FAI created the Ann Welch Diploma which may be awarded each year to the pilot or crew of a microlight or paramotor who made the most meritorious flight which resulted in a world record.
Annually, since 2006, usually in late spring, the Royal Aeronautical Society holds its Ann Welch named lecture in London, typically on a General Aviation theme.

## Personal life

In 1939 Ann (Edmonds) married Graham Douglas, whose family owned Redhill Aerodrome and who had loaned the club the £300 needed to buy the necessary gliders and a winch. This marriage was eventually dissolved and five years later she married Lorne Welch in 1953. Lorne Welch predeceased her. She was survived by her three daughters.