Lily Dillon (aviator)

Lily Dillon was a pioneer of female aviation in Ireland. Dillon became the first woman to receive an Irish Aero Club licence in 1934, after undertaking flying lessons at Kildonan Aerodrome, the first commercial aerodrome in Ireland, near Finglas in north Co Dublin.
Commercial operations ceased at Kildonan by 1938 with all commercial flight activity moving further north to Collinstown in Co Dublin (now the site of Dublin Airport).
==Early life==
Born Elizabeth Mary Decourcey Dillon on 27 October 1880 in the Square, Listowel, Co Kerry. She was commonly known as Lily. 
Her father was John Thomas Dillon (1853-1935) a local GP from Listowel. Her mother was Anna Margaret Decourcey (1854-1910) and came from Tarbert in north Co Kerry. John Dillon and Anna Decourcey were married in Tarbert Co. Kerry on 6 November 1879.
Lily was the eldest of five children of John and Anna. In the 1901 Census of Ireland, she is recorded as Lillie, and was listed as 20 years old at the time and living with her parents at No 11 The Square, Listowel. Also listed living at that address are her four younger siblings: Thomas (then aged 19), Henry (aged 17), Anna Margaret (aged 12) and William (aged 8). The 1901 census shows the Dillon family also has three domestic servants in residence at their home. Following the death of her mother Anna in May 1910, Dr John Dillion remarried in June 1911 to Aileen Daly (daughter of solicitor Patrick Daly of 90 St Stephen's Green Dublin). John Dillion had a further three daughters with his second wife. 
By the time of the 1911 Census Lily was listed 30 years old and now living at 35 The Square, Listowel. Following the death of her father in December 1935, the head of the Dillion household is now listed as her younger brother Henry, then aged 27, who profession is given as a GP. 
==Aviation career==
In his seminal work on the history of Listowel and north Co Kerry, Listowel and its vicinity, J Anthony Gaughan credits another well-known early Kerry pioneer of aviation in Ireland, Capt.Thomas Neville Stack, with introducing Lily Dillon to flying. 
In the January 1910 UK General Election the father of Capt. Neville Stack (who was also called Thomas Neville Stack) stood as a candidate in the North Kerry constituency against the sitting MP, Michael J. Flavin. Referring to the election campaign, J Anthony Gaughan writes- ""From the time the North Kerry Nationalist MP, Michael J Flavin, entered Parliament in 1896 until he retired in 1918, he was opposed in the polls on only one occasion. This was in 1910 when he easily dismissed the challenge of Thomas Neville Stack, who stood as an Independent Nationalist. A son of Thomas Neville Stack, who bore the same name as his father, was later a distinguished airman, and was largely responsible for interesting Miss Lily Dillon (daughter of Dr. J. T. Dillon, The Square, Listowel) in flying. Miss Dillon was one of the first women to own her own plane, and was a well known figure at international air rallies in the early 1930's".In March 1935 Lily Dillon was credited with becoming the first person to ever land an aircraft on the Aran Islands. In March 1937, she was one of 47 aviators taking part in the Egyptian Rally in Cairo, flying her BA Swallow monoplane, which was registered in her name on 29 January 1936 in the Irish aircraft registry as EI-ABD.
The Egyptian Rally race took off from the Almaza Aerodrome near Cairo consisted of two distinct races. The first was a 1,300-mile circuit of the Oases; the second a speed competition over a short triangular course around Almaza. Dillon won the Ladies' Cup and was the only woman entered in the race from either the UK or Ireland. 
Following her success in the race, the Irish Aero Club hosted a dinner in her honour, which was reported in the Irish Press newspaper a follows:
A few months later, she competed at the Zurich International Aviation Meeting from 23 July 23 to 1 August 1937. At the Paris International Rally on 1 August 1937, she finished 30th and was part of a British team that won the International Trophy. In September 1937, she entered her first King's Cup, co-piloting a Percival Vega Gull aircraft with Capt. Thomas Neville Stack. The course for this long-distance race took in an overnight stop at Baldonnel aerodrome near Dublin. The complete route was Hatfield-Newcastle-Aberdeen-Glasgow-Newtownards-Dublin (Baldonnell) overnight- Newtownards-Blackpool -Cardiff -Hatfield. From the start of the race on 16 September, Dillon and Stack had engine trouble and they ended up being eliminated from the race.
A year later, Dillon was flying her Swallow in Dinard, France.
In 1940, her aircraft was requisitioned by the RAF, presumably while in the UK, as part of Britain's wartime efforts to prepare for a possible German invasion. Her aircraft was cancelled from the Irish aircraft register in 1950. 
==Later life==
Later in life, Lily Dillon emigrated to Australia and lived in Perth and Fremantle in Western Australia. She is recorded in Australian electoral rolls in both 1958 and 1963 as living at 36 Duncraig Road, Applecross, Western Australia. Her death certificate shows she died at this address on 5 August 1963 aged 82, and is buried at Karrakatta cemetery in Perth.
Category:1880 births
Category:People from Listowel, County Kerry
Category:Irish people
Category:Pioneers
Category:1963 deaths