In 1931, Jane Winstone became the youngest female pilot in New Zealand to fly solo.
In 1931, Jane Winstone became the youngest female pilot in New Zealand to fly solo.
The “extraordinary” story of Whanganui aviator Jane Winstone will be celebrated in an exhibition showcasing a “magnetic” woman.
The exhibition, Thank You, Miss New Zealand: The Jane Winstone Collection,will be held at the Alexander Heritage and Research Library Te Rerenga Mai o Te Kāuru in Whanganui from February 9to March 30.
Described as “one of Whanganui’s wonder women”, Winstone is widely remembered for her extraordinary achievements in aviation.
In 1931, she became New Zealand’s youngest woman solo pilot at 17 years old.
She was a foundation member of the Whanganui Aero Club and piloted the first flight from Whanganui Airport with instructor Ian Keith.
She was New Zealand’s first woman to fly a glider and had the rare opportunity to fly the famed Southern Cross that had been piloted by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, as well as an aircraft belonging to celebrated transtasman aviator Pat O’Hara.
During World War ll, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in 1942, ferrying military aircraft to bases around England.
In this role, she flew an extraordinary range of aircraft, including the now-iconic Hurricane and Spitfire fighters.
Winstone died on February 10, 1944, after her Spitfire suffered an engine failure on takeoff and crashed into the English countryside.
The exhibition will be led by heritage librarians Dr Anna Gilderdale and Jasmin Ratana.
Gilderdale said the exhibition would show another side of Winstone.
“She obviously has quite a lot of recognition anyways, with the Jane Winstone Retirement Village, but I don’t feel like there’s a big knowledge of who she was,” Gilderdale said.
“The amazingness of what those women in the ATA actually did – they were basically expected to, with very little training, fly an extraordinary number of different planes.”
The Jane Winstone Retirement Village, on St John's Hill in Whanganui, is one example of how Jane Winstone is remembered. Photo / NZME
The collection was obtained just before August 2023 but processing it was delayed as new people settled in at the library.
“It’s taken us the best part of a year to get the collection in order – it’s been a bit of a journey,” Gilderdale said.
The exhibition will showcase previously unseen letters, diaries, photographs and aircraft models of the planes Winstone flew.
“What a lot of people might not realise is that the collection has all of her wartime correspondence to her family, and often the replies as well,” Gilderdale said.
“We’ve ended up with both halves of the correspondence, which is quite rare to have in a collection, so you just get a real feel for her,” she said.
“The young woman you’ll meet in this exhibition is so full of life – adventurous, charismatic, playful yet poised – a magnetic person, known for her warmth and charm."
The library’s small team was looking forward to the exhibition.
“Getting an exhibition up is quite an achievement for us – we don’t do it very often but when we do, we give it our all,” Gilderdale said.
A talk related to the exhibition will be held as part of La Fiesta women’s festival on February 15 at 2pm.
Guided tours of the exhibition will take place on March 4 at 10am and 2pm.
No booking is required for the exhibition but larger groups are encouraged to contact heritage@whanganuilibrary.com.
