The Times Great Women's Lives

by Sue Corbett

  A welcoming committee for American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (centre) in June 1928

  On May 20, 1932, she set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, and after 13 and a quarter hours she made landfall off Donegal. This was the fastest Atlantic flight to date. She had trouble with various instruments and accessories on the machine during her flight, but she was then an experienced pilot, and doubtless her previous crossing stood her in good stead. When she was four hours out one section of the heavy exhaust manifold on the engine began to leak. At the same time she met bad weather and had to begin blind flying, and soon afterwards her altimeter failed her. She told our Aeronautical Correspondent that she then climbed up into the clouds until the tachometer (engine revolutions counter) froze, “and then I knew I couldn’t be near the sea.” She thought she went up to 12,000ft, but ice began to form on the wings and the clouds were still heavy above her. Meanwhile the intense heat at the leaking exhaust began to burn away the metal. She looked over at it and wished she hadn’t as she saw the flames coming out, and it worried her all night. Other parts began to work loose and serious vibration was set up. The engine also “began to run rough,” petrol leaked into the cockpit from the petrol gauge, and there was the danger lest petrol fumes should reach the exhaust manifold and be exploded by the flames that poured from the gap. At last she made Ireland as she guessed, but could not be sure, and without an altimeter could not go high enough through the clouds to be sure of clearing the hills. So she turned north until she saw the hills above the river mouth west of Londonderry. Following the railway track, she made an almost perfect landing on a farm two miles from Londonderry, and was hospitably entertained by the farmer and his wife.

  When she arrived in London she was given a great welcome. Afterwards she crossed to France, where her husband joined her, and was fêted and decorated there, as well as in Belgium and Italy, and the United States conferred a flying decoration on her.

  In September, 1932, Miss Earhart set up another record for women by flying non-stop and solo across the United States from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 19 hours 4 minutes, which was only 1 hour 25 minutes longer than the best time by a man pilot (Frank Hawks) over that route.

  In January, 1935, Miss Earhart flew alone in her Lockheed Vega monoplane from Honolulu to Oakland, California, 2,408 miles, in 18 hours 15 minutes; and in the following May she made a non-stop flight from Mexico City to New York, 2,100 miles, in 14 hours 18 minutes. She had to cross mountains 10,000ft high.

  On March 17 of the present year she left Oakland, California, on a flight round the world, but crashed at Honolulu on March 21. As the fuselage struck the ground a tongue of flame was seen to shoot from it, and it was believed that only Miss Earhart’s prompt action in turning off the ignition saved the lives of herself and her two companions.

  Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer, was born on July 24, 1898. She, and the plane she was flying, disappeared on July 2, 1937; she was 38

  LILIAN BAYLIS

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  MANAGER OF THE OLD VIC AND SADLER’S WELLS THEATRES WHO STAGED SHAKESPEARE, OPERA AND BALLET AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

  NOVEMBER 26, 1937

  Miss Lilian Mary Baylis’s death takes from the English theatre a unique and important figure, whose name will always be associated with the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells Theatres. Miss Baylis was, moreover, in the best sense, a “character” with a rare directness of manner, a compelling faith — which she communicated to others — that what ought to be done could be done in spite of all obstacles, and a power of delegation that might have made the fortune of a Prime Minister — a power, that is to say, of choosing unerringly the right men and women to do work for which she was not personally qualified, and of inducing them, as a team, to serve the cause to which she devoted a great part of her life.

  Born in London on May 9, 1874, she came of musical stock, being the daughter of Newton Baylis, a baritone, and his wife, Liebe Konss, a contralto and a pianist. The girl was educated as a musician, practising five hours a day, looking after the younger members of her large family, and beginning to give concerts when she was 10 years old. When she was six her aunt, Emma Cons, opened the Old Vic, her niece being present with a ceremonial bouquet which, in the belief that princesses, like fairies, were always dressed in pink, she presented to the wrong lady. It was, perhaps, the only serious mistake she ever made in the theatre.

  Her fortunes took her, as a young woman, to South Africa, where, between the ages of 17 and 22, she taught not the violin only, but the banjo, the mandolin, and the guitar. Overwork, illness, and an order to rest brought her to London, where she became her aunt’s assistant as manager of the Old Vic, which she since described as “a coffee-music hall.” She succeeded to management in 1912 and gradually built up a tradition of Shakespeare, opera, and ballet at low prices. She was justly proud not only of having produced all the works in the First Folio, together with Pericles, but of having given to her public a wide range of non-Shakespearian classics, from Ibsen’s Peer Gynt to Tchehov’s The Cherry Orchard.

  In 1931 she increased her responsibilities by reopening Sadler’s Wells, which was originally intended to exchange companies with the Old Vic, but this was found to be impracticable; the Old Vic held to the drama, and Sadler’s Wells was devoted to opera and to the establishment of a permanent ballet company.

  Miss Baylis’s work for opera may perhaps be best described as the creation of a Volksoper for London in which popular operas like Maritana and Faust, outstanding masterpieces like Tristan and Isolde and Don Giovanni, native operas like Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate, and more recently Stanford’s The Travelling Companion and Vaughan Williams’s Hugh The Drover have been offered to the London public at philanthropic prices. The Old Vic originally had no dramatic licence, and in the early days only detached scenes from operas could be given. A chorus was first employed in 1895, but it was only in 1914 that operas could be presented in the normal manner. Miss Baylis solved her problem by a process of steady improvement, never outrunning, but always consolidating and extending the capacities of her company.

  When Sadler’s Wells was built it was possible to embark on a more generous policy which brought in many operas outside the normal repertory, of which Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, Mussorgsky’s Boris Goudonov in its original form, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and only this week Beethoven’s Fidelio, are conspicuous examples. The ballet was helped in its infancy by an inheritance from the Camargo Society, but under Miss Ninette de Valois Miss Baylis’s youngest child has become in five years a permanent feature of London’s artistic life, in which again native works like Vaughan Williams’s Job have found a place beside the classics.

  So skilful and so little selfish was Miss Baylis’s work, and such was her power to join collaborators with her, that there is every reason to believe that, though her commanding personality is now withdrawn, the organization of which she was the head, and which has come to be thought of as an unofficial theatre of the nation, will continue to flourish and develop. There could be no more fitting memorial to her than the freeing of it from debt.

  In England, organizations have often an unexpected growth. Lilian Baylis, though she believed that a divine voice commanded her to “put on Shakespeare as you do operas,” was not in essence a Shakespearian, and, when she did put on Shakespeare, it was with the idea of giving performances of great plays to the very poor at very low prices. Since that time the standard of production has steadily risen, and so great has the reputation of her theatre become as a training-ground for young players and as a place of opportunity for leading actors and producers, that she seemed to have the whole profession at her command. Men and women would work for her at salaries they would accept nowhere else, and when, at first nights, she appeared in academical dress with a bouquet she was greeted on both sides of the footlights with an affection that was good to watch and to share. She was a Companion of Honour, an honorary MA of Oxf
ord, and an honorary LL.D of Birmingham.

  Lilian Baylis, CH, theatre manager, was born on May 9, 1874. She died on November 25, 1937, aged 63

  SUZANNE LENGLEN

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  FRENCH TENNIS PLAYER WHO DOMINATED THE WOMEN’S GAME IN THE YEARS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE FIRST WORLD WAR

  JULY 5, 1938

  Mlle Suzanne Lenglen, the greatest woman lawn tennis player of her time, was taken ill on June 15, but as she complained of nothing more than undue fatigue there seemed no reason for alarm. She rapidly grew weaker, however, and a blood test revealed the true nature of her malady. Last Thursday the doctors decided on a blood transfusion, and a marked improvement followed, but on Friday she again began to weaken, though she insisted on discussing with her friends and family the lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon.

  Late on Sunday night she herself realized that the end was near, telling her mother that she knew no more could be done for her. During the last few hours, ever-increasing feebleness and great suffering left her unable to say more than a few words at rare intervals, but she remained conscious and courageous until a few minutes before her death.

  Our Lawn Tennis Correspondent writes:—

  “It has become a journalistic custom to hail each successive champion as the best that ever was, but certainly no woman has played lawn tennis as Mlle Lenglen did. More than that, her influence on the feminine game throughout the world was extraordinary; she and Tilden may almost be said to have made Wimbledon as it exists to-day. So many people flocked to watch her that it soon became evident that the old ground in Worple Road was not nearly large enough to hold them. It seems all the sadder that she should have fallen ill during the Wimbledon meeting, which made her fame.

  “Mlle Lenglen was more than a remarkably good player. Whether or not it was because she was French and burst upon an astonished world at the first Wimbledon after the War, hers was a positive, vital personality that made news. Even her bandeau achieved fame. Long after she left the amateur game she attracted much interest when she visited Wimbledon as a spectator; at the Stade Roland Garros, in Auteuil, crowds would flock from a centre court match if ‘Suzanne’ were knocking up on a side court with Cochet. Curiously enough, however, it was on the English scene that her star shone brightest.

  “I do not know whether Mlle Lenglen was ever beaten in a completed match. Certainly no one in Europe beat her after the War; from 1919 until 1926 her supremacy was unchallenged. At a time when J. D. Budge’s feat in winning three Wimbledon championships is outstanding it may be recalled that Mlle Lenglen did so three times; in 1925 she won three events in the world championships at St Cloud as well, and Olympic honours fell to her at Antwerp in 1920. Her first Wimbledon in 1919 at the age of 20 was dramatic. In the last match she overcame Mrs Lambert Chambers, the established champion — whose record has just been beaten by Mrs Moody — after saving two match balls, one a little luckily, in the third set. Her score was 10-8, 4-6, 9-7, and Mlle Lenglen’s reputation was made. No one after that really looked like beating her. She went on to win six singles championships at Wimbledon, six doubles, with Miss E. Ryan, and she won the mixed doubles with G. L. Patterson, P. O’Hara Wood, and J. Borotra. It was the same in France, where she won six times. Mlle Lenglen missed a year through illness in 1924, but her game was stronger than ever in 1925, when she won again at Wimbledon after beating the holder, Miss K. McKane (now Mrs Godfree) in two love sets. There is no counting her exploits in the South of France.

  Suzanne Lenglen: “probably we shall not see her like again”

  “Mlle Lenglen, like other champions, possessed what, for want of a better word, is called a ‘temperament,’ which more than once led to tears — French tears, remember — that may not have been understood by Anglo-Saxon audiences. In 1921 she undertook a tour of the United States in aid of the devastated areas of France, and had the misfortune to meet Mrs Mallory in her first match in the American championships. The draw was not seeded in those days, and Mlle Lenglen retired in tears amid general consternation after losing the first set. But earlier in the year at St Cloud she had beaten Mrs Mallory, and took ample revenge in the Wimbledon final of 1922, in which Mrs Mallory won only two games. In 1926 came disaster. Mlle Lenglen had become increasingly unamenable to the strict punctuality by which a great meeting like Wimbledon must be governed, and there came a day when she did not turn up for a match in the Centre Court which Queen Mary was waiting to watch. This unfortunate happening ruined everything. Mlle Lenglen retired after playing a mixed double in which Borotra displayed great tact, and shortly afterwards left the amateur game altogether. It had been in the spring of that year that Mlle Lenglen had played her historic match against Miss Wills (now Mrs Moody) in Cannes. Lord Charles Hope, one of the linesmen, intervened when the umpire awarded the match to Mlle Lenglen at 7-5 in the second set, and it was resumed in an uproar and won by Mlle Lenglen at 8-6. Miss Wills was taken ill early in the French Championships a few months later, and her challenge on Mlle Lenglen’s dominion was not to be put satisfactorily to the test.

  “Probably we shall not see the like of Mlle Lenglen again. Her fame belongs to the post-War period, but as a child, under the stern coaching of her father, who was always at the court side in her later matches, she had shown a remarkable aptitude for the game, and she won her first local championship at the age of 14. A year later she had won the French championship. Her genius lay in taking pains; her accuracy was such that she was supposed to be able to hit a coin in any part of the court. Her forehand drive was a magnificent stroke; no one else has had her dancing feet. M. Lacoste said of the first Lenglen match he watched: ‘At first I was disappointed. I expected her to execute extraordinary strokes, but she played with marvellous ease the simplest strokes in the world. It was only after several games that I noticed what harmony was concealed by Mlle Lenglen’s simplicity, what wonderful mental and physical balance was hidden by the facility of her play.’ Apart from one or two tours Mlle Lenglen played very little as a professional, but in recent years her love of the game was devoted to running in Paris a State-aided lawn tennis school for children which was a great success. It had been truly said of her that she was incomparable; a host of English friends will miss ‘Suzanne.’ ”

  The funeral of Mlle Lenglen will take place to-morrow morning. At 11am a service will be held at the Church of the Assumption, and the burial will be in the cemetery of Saint Ouen.

  Suzanne Lenglen, tennis player, was born on May 24, 1899. She died on July 4, 1938, aged 39

  AMY JOHNSON

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  FIRST WOMAN AVIATOR TO FLY SOLO FROM ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA

  JANUARY 8, 1941

  Miss Amy Johnson, CBE, whose death is now confirmed, will always be remembered as the first woman to fly alone from England to Australia. That flight took place in 1930 and her name at once became world-famous.

  In the early days of the war she was employed in “ferrying” material to France for the RAF. Her cool courage, flying unarmed through the danger zone, was much admired by the RAF pilots. Since that time she had flown a variety of aircraft many thousands of miles and she met her death while serving her country.

  Amy Johnson was of Danish origin. Her grandfather, Anders Jörgensen, shipped to Hull when he was 16, settled there, changed his name to Johnson, and married a Yorkshire woman named Mary Holmes. One of their sons, the father of Amy, became a successful owner of Hull trawlers. Amy graduated BA at Sheffield University, and then went to London to learn to fly at the London Flying Club at Stag Lane, Edgware. After taking her “A” licence she passed the Air Ministry examination to qualify as a ground engineer. Before starting on her flight to Australia her only considerable experience of cross-country flying was one flight from London to Hull.

  Having acquired a secondhand Moth with Gipsy engine, she started from Croydon on May 5, 1930, on an attempt to beat the light aeroplane record of 15 and a half days from England to Australia. Considering her lack of experience at that time
as a navigator, it was a marvel that she found her way so well. She arrived safely at Darwin on May 24. Thence she flew to Brisbane, where, probably through her exhausted condition, she overshot the aerodrome and crashed her Moth rather badly. Australian National Airways Limited arranged for her to fly as a passenger in one of their machines to Sydney, and in the pilot of that machine she met her future husband, Mr J. A. Mollison. She was accorded a great reception in Australia, and was received at Government House. King George V conferred on her the CBE and the Daily Mail made her a present of £10,000. On her return to England she was met at Croydon by the Secretary of State for Air, the late Lord Thomson, in person.

  In 1931 she made a fine flight to Tokyo across Siberia, and then back to England, and in 1932 she started off in another Puss Moth, Desert Cloud, to beat her husband’s record to the Cape, which she did by nearly 10 and a half hours. The skill with which she crossed Africa proved that she had become a first-class pilot. In 1933 she and her husband acquired a D H Dragon aeroplane and set out to fly to New York. They successfully crossed the Atlantic, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Maine, and Massachusetts, but when they were approaching New York their petrol ran short and they therefore landed at Bridgeport, 60 miles short of New York, in the dark. The Dragon ran into a swamp and overturned. It was extensively damaged, and both of them were bruised and scratched. Her flight to the Cape and back in May, 1936, will rank as one of her greatest achievements. She beat the outward and the homeward records, the record for the double journey, and the capital to capital record. The Royal Aero Club conferred its gold medal upon her in October, 1936, in recognition of her Empire flights. Her book “Sky Roads of the World” was published in September, 1939.