Honor Isabel Pitman

Honor Salmon (née Pitman) (30 October 1912 – 19 April 1943) was a British First Officer pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War Two. She was one of fifteen women pilots who lost their lives flying in the service of the ATA.

Early life and education Honor Isabel Pitman was born in Kensington on 30 October 1912 to Francis Isabel (née Butler) and Ernest Pitman. Her paternal grandfather Sir Isaac Pitman, was the inventor of shorthand and the family fortune came from his work. She had five siblings, politician and educational theorist Isaac James Pitman (b. 1901), Christian Ernest (b. 1902), John (b. 1907), Peter (b. 1911) and Diana (b. 1914).

Honor Pitman was baptised on 12 December 1912 at Weston All Saints, in Bath, Somerset.

Pitman was educated at Abbot's Hill School and Westonbirt School, in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Flying career Pitman had learned how to fly by the age of 14 but because of her youth and age restrictions on qualifying to undertake lone flying she "always had to fly with someone & could never go to other aerodromes to land" beyond the Bristol and Wessex Aero Club. Pitman was 24 when she qualified for her pilot's licence (No. 14649), issued by the Royal Aero Club, on 23 December 1936 at the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club, flying a B A Swallow with a 85 hp Pobjoy Cataract radial engine. In 1936 Pitman joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).

Pitman was stationed at the ATA's No. 15 Ferry Pool, at Hamble in Southampton with the rank of First Officer pilot.

Death and commemoration

Honor Salmon died age 30 on 19 April 1943 when the Airspeed Oxford MN765 plane she was transporting in bad weather crashed in a field on high ground at Roundway Hill near Calne in Wiltshire. The ATA investigation found that she had continued to fly in bad weather and was at fault. Two of her brothers who also died in service during the Second World War. Peter Pitman-Butler, a Captain in the 7th Queen's Own Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps, died in July 1940, and was buried in the Cairo War Cemetery, Egypt and John Pitman, a Captain in the 3rd King's Own Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps, was killed in Palestine on 1 October 1943, and buried at the Khayat Beach War Cemetery, Israel. The three siblings are commemorated on a plaque in the church at Dyrham.