Joy Lofthouse

Early life Lofthouse was born Joyce Gough, but was always known as Joy, in Cirencester

Career In 1943, 20-year-old Lofthouse and her elder sister Yvonne joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, after they saw an ad in a magazine which was seeking women to learn how to fly. Her job was to deliver aircraft from the factories where they were made to the airfields where they were to be flown from by Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots. She said, "It was the iconic plane, the Spitfire lasted much longer than [the Hurricane] because it was such a wonderful aeroplane, I think. [It is] the nearest thing to having wings of your own and flying."

Personal life She was married twice and had three children. Her second marriage was to Charles Lofthouse, himself a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot, and they were married for 30 years until his death in 2002 at the age of 80.

She died in November 2017, at the age of 94. Before she died, Lofthouse was one of the two surviving World War Two "Spitfire Girls".