page_title: Gabrielle Patterson
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Gabrielle Patterson / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: English: Lettice Curtis, Jenny Broad, Wendy Sale Barker, Gabrielle Patterson and Pauline Gower in front of an Airspeed Oxford trainer. All of the Air Transport Auxilary in 1942
context_page_description: Gabrielle Ruth Millicent Patterson born Gabrielle Ruth Millicent Burr was a British aviator who worked for the Air Transport Auxiliary. She was Britain's first woman flying instructor.
context_section_description: When war broke out in 1939 she join the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She was already well known as leader of the National Women’s Air Reserve. She was the first woman flying instructor and she had several years experience as an instructor before she joined. 
  She became one of the ATA's first eight pilots alongside Joan Hughes, Margaret Cunnison, Mona Friedlander, Rosemary Rees, Marion Wilberforce, Margaret Fairweather, and Winifred Crossley Fair, under the command of Pauline Gower. 
  One of their first tasks was to deliver eight Tiger Moth planes to Scotland. They would need to fly in winter in these open cockpit planes. Patterson had a range of over twenty aircraft that she could fly although her short height was noted as a restriction on her abilities. In time Pauline Gower who had recruited the first eight was able to argue that they should be allowed to fly any type of aircraft. In 1943 they achieved pay parity with male pilots. Before that they had routinely been paid only 80% of the male wage.
  In 1941, she approached the Women's Engineering Society (of which she was a member) to create the Amy Johnson Memorial Fund, in memory of her ATA colleague and former Women's Engineering Society president. Patterson devoted a lot of time and energy toward the project and created its initial publicity materials.
  Due to illness Patterson was grounded in 1943 and left the ATA.
caption: Five ATA flyers Lettice Curtis, Jenny Broad, Audrey Sale-Barker, Gabrielle Patterson and Pauline Gower in 1942 by an Airspeed Oxford trainer
exif: {}