Gabrielle Patterson

Gabrielle Ruth Millicent Patterson (; 1905–1968) was a British aviator who worked for the Air Transport Auxiliary. She was Britain's first woman flying instructor.

Early life She was born in Maida Vale in London on 6 July 1905. She was the eldest of four children. Her father, Malcolm Burr, a mining engineer, earned his money as a teacher although his passion was insects. Her mother Clara Millicent Goode and her siblings moved with their father and she received an education in various European locations "including Paris, Berlin, Budapest, and Vienna". She became company secretary at her mother's family firm.

She was not tall but she was well off so she was able to gain a pilots licence and subsequently an instructors licence

Gabrielle Burr met her husband Arthur Patterson around the same time, and taught him to fly. They were married in June 1931 and their only child, a boy named Ian was born the following year. The couple both worked in airfields and bought a Miles Hawk plane. From May 1936 until August 1937 she was the instructor at the South Staffordshire Aero Club at the newly opened Walsall Airfield. Gabrielle Patterson earned a 'B' licence and began working as a commercial pilot for Silvertown Lubricants Ltd. then worked in sales management for Miles Aircraft Company, which was part owned by another pilot Maxine 'Blossom' Miles, who designed the Miles Hawk G-ACIZ aircraft which Patterson flew in the King's Cup Air Race in 1934. ) in 1938 Patterson arranged an aerial event which included a number of aerial displays including those of representatives from other countries - including the German women pilots Melitta von Stauffenberg and Elly Beinhorn - against a backdrop of increased tension in Europe, the event coinciding with the Munich Crisis

Second World War

When war broke out in 1939 she join the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She was already well known as leader of the National Women’s Air Reserve She was the first woman flying instructor and she had several years experience as an instructor before she joined.

She became one of the ATA's first eight pilots alongside Joan Hughes, Margaret Cunnison, Mona Friedlander, Rosemary Rees, Marion Wilberforce, Margaret Fairweather, and Winifred Crossley Fair, under the command of Pauline Gower.

Due to illness Patterson was grounded in 1943 and left the ATA.

Later life When the war ended Patterson continued flying and instructing as the commandant of the Women’s Junior Air Corps until 1950. She taught flying at aero clubs until she had to stop for medical reasons following which she took a degree at Manchester University from 1954 to 1956. In 1956 she went to study through a scholarship at the Sorbonne. The fifteen surviving women members of the ATA (and 100 surviving male pilots) were given a special award in 2008 by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.