Mary De Bunsen

Mary de Bunsen (29 May 1910 – 13 April 1982) was a British Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and author.

Early life Mary Berta de Bunsen was born in Madrid on 29 May 1910 to Sir Maurice William Ernest (1st Bt) de Bunsen and Bertha Mary Lowry-Corry. She was their fourth daughter and fourth child. She was expected to be a debutante, in attendance at balls and soirees but did not enjoy the lifestyle. She was lame from polio, suffered from a weak heart which left her often breathless and needed glasses to counteract short-sight.

However, this did not stop Bunsen from learning to fly, despite her parents' opposition. She considered it her escape route from “the ghastly fate of a daughter-in-waiting”.

Through her flying connections, she was appointed to run PR and the inhouse magazine of Straight Corporation Ltd a significant operator of British airlines, airports and flying clubs founded in 1935. In 1939 she wrote an article on ‘The place of the aerodrome in modern life’ for The Woman Engineer, journal of the Women's Engineering Society, showcasing ideas which Straight Corp. had for the development of smaller British airports into local cultural destinations. Suggestions for Ipswich Airport included a swimming pool, running track, theatre & sunbathing court, as well as the more expected car parks and restaurants.

Postwar After the war Bunsen flew to Philadelphia for pioneering heart surgery which she paid for herself. She survived, against the one in ten chance given by the surgeon.

Bunsen family Mary de Bunsen was a member of a large Anglo-German wider family. Her paternal grandfather was Ernest de Bunsen, a writer whose works were later taken up as part of racist Aryan mythology. Her paternal grandparents were author and diplomatic hostess Frances Bunsen, sister of Lady Llanover and Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen, Prussian ambassador to Great Britain. She was distantly related to bluestocking Mary Delany, through her paternal great great grandmother Georgina Mary Ann Waddington (née Port).