Mary Welsh

This article is about the Director of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. For the American journalist, see Mary Welsh Hemingway.

Air Chief Commandant
Dame Mary Welsh
DBE TD
Air Chief Commandant Welsh in 1945
Director of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force
In office
1943–1946
Personal details
Born
Ruth Mary Eldridge Dalzell

(1896-08-02)2 August 1896
Claughton, Birkenhead, England
Died25 June 1986(1986-06-25) (aged 89)
Farnborough, Hampshire, England
Spouse
Air Marshal Sir William Welsh
​
​
(m. 1922; div. 1947)​
AwardsDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Territorial Efficiency Decoration
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch/serviceFirst Aid Nursing Yeomanry
Auxiliary Territorial Service
Women's Auxiliary Air Force
Years of service1918–1919
1937–1946
RankAir Chief Commandant
CommandsWomen's Auxiliary Air Force
Battles/warsFirst World War
Second World War

Air Chief Commandant Dame Ruth Mary Eldridge Welsh, DBE, TD (née Dalzell; 2 August 1896 – 25 June 1986) was the second Director of the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), from 1943 to 1946.

Early life

Ruth Mary Eldridge Dalzell was born in Claughton, Birkenhead, the daughter of William Robert Dalzell[1] and Ruth Mary Frances Annie Elizabeth Goldsworth Kirkpatrick Dalzell. Her father was a doctor.[2]

Air Chief Commandant Lady M E Welsh, Director of the WAAF, talking with Leading Aircraftwoman Marjorie Nixon in the Sorting Room of the 2nd Tactical Air Force Photographic Negative Library at Keerbergen, during her visit to the WAAF in Belgium. Wing Officer A Stevens stands to the left of Lady Welsh.
Air Chief Commandant Welsh talking with Leading Aircraftwoman Marjorie Nixon in the Sorting Room of the 2nd Tactical Air Force Photographic Negative Library at Keerbergen, during her visit to the WAAF in Belgium.

Career

During the First World War, Mary Dalzell went to France as an ambulance driver in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, from October 1918 to June 1919.[2]

As an Air Force wife, she travelled with her husband. In 1937, she joined the Emergency Service, and in 1938 the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the women's branch of the British Army.[3] In 1939 she was promoted to the senior commandant, based in London; she was transferred later that year to the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).[2] She served as inspector-general from 1942 and succeeded Katherine Jane Trefusis-Forbes[4] to become the second Director of the WAAF, from October 1943[5] to November 1946.[6] In this work, she toured WAAF locations abroad, including Belgium, Italy, and India.[7]

Honours and awards

Personal life

Mary Dalzell married William Lawrie Welsh, an officer in the Royal Air Force, in 1922.[1] They had a son, Michael, born in 1926. Her husband was knighted in 1941, making her Lady Welsh. The Welshes divorced in 1947, and she moved to Odiham, Hampshire. There she was active in historic preservation as president of the Odiham Society. Mary Welsh died, aged 89, on 25 June 1986, in Farnborough.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "New W. A. A. F. Director". The Guardian. 1 October 1943. p. 3. Retrieved 4 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b c d Escott, Beryl E. (2009). "Welsh [née Dalzell], Dame (Ruth) Mary Eldridge (1896–1986), director of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68169. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Air Chief Commandant Lady R. E. Welsh D.B.E., Director W.A.A.F. (1 August 1946). "The Women's Auxiliary Air Force in the War". Royal United Services Institution. Journal. 91 (563): 376–381. doi:10.1080/03071844609433943. ISSN 0035-9289.
  4. ^ Wadge, D. Collett (2003). Women in Uniform. Imperial War Museum. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-901623-61-1.
  5. ^ "Timeline | Women of the Air Force". RAF Museum. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  6. ^ Sherit, Kathleen (15 February 2020). Women on the Front Line: British Servicewomen's Path to Combat. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-9685-0.
  7. ^ "LADY WELSH VISITS CALCUTTA [Allocated Title]". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  8. ^ "No. 37598". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 1946. p. 2779.
  9. ^ "The Birthday Honours". The Guardian. 13 June 1946. p. 5. Retrieved 4 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "No. 46029". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 July 1973. p. 8288.