Mary Bell ( aviator ) Mary Teston Luis Bell ( 3 December 1903 – 6 February 1979 ) was an Australian aviator and founding leader of the Women ' s Air Training Corps ( WATC ) , a volunteer organisation that provided support to the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) during World War II . She also helped establish the Women ' s Auxiliary Australian Air Force ( WAAAF ) , the first and largest women ' s wartime service in the country , which grew to number more than 18 , 000 members by 1944 . Born Mary Fernandes in Tasmania , she married RAAF officer John Bell in 1923 and obtained a pilot ' s licence in 1927 . Given temporary command of the WAAAF on its formation in 1941 , she was passed over as its inaugural Director in favour of corporate executive Clare Stevenson . Bell refused the post of Deputy Director and resigned , but subsequently rejoined and served until the final months of the war . She and her husband later became farmers . Nicknamed " Paddy " , Mary Bell died in 1979 at the age of seventy - five . Early life and WATC . Born on 3 December 1903 in Launceston , Tasmania , Mary Bell was the daughter of Rowland Walker Luis Fernandes , an English - born clerk , and his wife Emma . She attended Church of England Girls ' Grammar School , Launceston and St Margaret ' s School , Devonport , before commencing work in a solicitor ' s office at the age of fourteen . She married John Bell ( 1889 – 1973 ) , a Royal Australian Air Force officer and World War I veteran of Gallipoli and the Australian Flying Corps , at St Andrew ' s Anglican Church in Brighton , Victoria on 19 March 1923 . They had one daughter . From 1925 until early 1928 , the Bells lived in Britain while John attended RAF Staff College , Andover and acted as RAAF liaison officer to the Royal Air Force . Interested in aviation since her teens , Mary learnt to fly in England and in April 1927 qualified for a Grade ' A ' private pilot ' s licence . Returning to Australia , she was the first female to gain a pilot ' s licence in Victoria , on 20 March 1928 . The following year , she became the first Australian woman to qualify as a ground engineer . By 1939 , the Bells had moved to Brisbane , where John was Queensland manager for Airlines of Australia Ltd , having left the RAAF in 1929 . Mary became leader of forty or so members of the Women ' s National Emergency Legion Air Wing who had volunteered to assist with aircraft maintenance during times of war . Determining that their objectives would not be met in their existing organisation , on 17 July they formed a new paramilitary group , the Women ' s Air Training Corps ( WATC ) , and elected Bell its commander . She soon expanded the WATC into a national organisation , with Commandants leading each state ' s chapter , and herself as Australian Commandant . Bell wrote to Air Vice Marshal Richard Williams , with whom she was acquainted via her husband and through aviation circles , advocating the establishment of a women ' s branch of the RAAF similar to the RAF ' s Women ' s Auxiliary Air Force ( WAAF ) . Among other things , she pointed out that female volunteers such as hers were already supporting the Air Force in driving , nursing and clerical duties . The WATC was one of a number of women ' s voluntary organisations whose members were keen to support the military , arguing that their personnel provided a ready - made pool of skilled staff for auxiliary services , saving the government time and money associated with training unskilled labour . World War II and WAAAF . Australia having declared war on 3 September 1939 , the RAAF Air Board met in November to discuss Mary Bell ' s letter , but postponed taking any further action . Bell continued to lobby , however , as did various women ' s groups seeking to support the war effort and free male staff for overseas postings . In July 1940 , the new Chief of the Air Staff , Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett , invited her to produce a proposal for a women ' s auxiliary , supervised by her husband John , who had rejoined the Air Force at the war ' s outbreak and was now a wing commander in the Directorate of Organisation at RAAF Headquarters , Melbourne . Mary recommended forming the new service under the Air Force Act to permit women to enlist for the duration of the war under conditions similar to RAAF members , rather than enrolling on a short - term contractual basis , a radical idea at the time which would not be put in place until 1943 . She also suggested a volunteer reserve or ' citizen ' force to augment the enlisted women , effectively the existing WATC , though this was seen as placing too much emphasis on her personal command . Various senior Air Force officers , including the recently promoted Air Marshal Williams , and the Director of Personnel Services , Group Captain Joe Hewitt , opposed a women ' s service . Burnett , an RAF member who appreciated how the WAAF proved its worth during the Battle of Britain , championed its establishment as the Women ' s Auxiliary Australian Air Force ( WAAAF ) . Bell was appointed to the RAAF ' s Personnel Branch as Staff Officer ( Administrative ) with the probationary rank of section officer ( acting flight officer ) on 24 February 1941 , in order to " get the organisation going " . Formally established on 25 March , the WAAAF was the first uniformed women ' s branch of an armed service in Australia , predating similar organisations in the Army and Navy . Bell led the WAAAF for the first three months of its existence , recruiting approximately two hundred women by June ; of the first six officers she appointed , five were former members of the WATC . On 21 May 1941 , Berlei corporate executive Clare Stevenson was appointed Director WAAAF with Bell as her Deputy Director , effective from 9 June . The Air Member for Personnel , Air Vice Marshal Henry Wrigley , chose Stevenson on the basis of her management background and because she was not a " socialite " . Notwithstanding her aviation experience and familiarity with the RAAF , he considered Bell to be " tangled up with the WATC " , where she " waved the flag and obtained a great deal of publicity for herself " . She may also have alienated Burnett by not including his daughter Sybil - Jean , a founding member of the WAAF , among the initial intake of staff . Bell chose to resign on learning of Stevenson ' s appointment , rather than stay on and report to someone from outside the service fraternity ; she later rejoined at Wrigley ' s request , on the condition that she received no promotion higher than flight officer . Two of her original officer appointees also resigned when Bell was passed over , later describing her as " a thorough and effective organiser " and the " obvious choice " as Director . After Bell returned to the WAAAF on 5 October 1942 , she served at RAAF Headquarters in various directorates , mainly that of Medical Services . Despite her recommendation in July 1940 that they be enlisted into the WAAAF as permanent staff , women were at first enrolled only for renewable twelve - month contracts ; they did not become part of the Permanent Air Force , with the benefits that entailed , until 1943 . Pay was only ever two - thirds that of male equivalents . The organisation grew rapidly , however , peaking in strength at over 18 , 600 members in October 1944 , or twelve per cent of all RAAF personnel . By the end of the war a total of 27 , 000 women had served in the WAAAF , comprising over thirty - one per cent of ground staff and filling sixty - one trades , all previously occupied by men . Later life . Ranked flight officer , Mary Bell was discharged from the WAAAF at her own request on 11 April 1945 . Her husband John was acting air commodore when he left the RAAF on 15 October that year . The WAAAF , first and largest of Australia ' s wartime women ' s services , was disbanded on 30 September 1946 . The Bells became farmers , first in Victoria and then in Tasmania , before retiring in 1968 . Survived by her daughter , Mary Bell died in Ulverstone , Tasmania on 6 February 1979 . She was buried at Mersey Vale Memorial Park cemetery in Spreyton , near Devonport , beside her husband , who had died in 1973 .