Mary Welsh

Air Chief Commandant Dame Ruth Mary Eldridge Welsh, (née Dalzell; 2 August 1896 – 25 June 1986) was the second Director of the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), from 1943 to 1946.

Early life Ruth Mary Eldridge Dalzell was born in Claughton, Birkenhead, the daughter of William Robert Dalzell and Ruth Mary Frances Annie Elizabeth Goldsworth Kirkpatrick Dalzell. Her father was a doctor. alt=Air Chief Commandant Lady M E Welsh, Director of the WAAF, talking with Leading Aircraftwoman Marjorie Nixon in the Sorting Room of the 2nd Tactical Air Force Photographic Negative Library at Keerbergen, during her visit to the WAAF in Belgium. Wing Officer A Stevens stands to the left of Lady Welsh. Air Chief Commandant Welsh talking with Leading Aircraftwoman Marjorie Nixon in the Sorting Room of the 2nd Tactical Air Force Photographic Negative Library at Keerbergen, during her visit to the WAAF in Belgium.

Career During the First World War, Mary Dalzell went to France as an ambulance driver in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, from October 1918 to June 1919. In 1939 she was promoted to the senior commandant, based in London; she was transferred later that year to the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). to become the second Director of the WAAF, from October 1943 to November 1946. In this work, she toured WAAF locations abroad, including Belgium, Italy, and India.

Honours and awards 13 June 1946 – Air Chief Commandant Ruth Mary Eldridge, Lady Welsh, Women's Auxiliary Air Force, appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 17 July 1973 – Air Chief Comdt. Dame Ruth Mary Welsh, DBE (L/No 29023 ATS later 291 WAAF), retired awarded the Territorial Efficiency Decoration.

Personal life Mary Dalzell married William Lawrie Welsh, an officer in the Royal Air Force, in 1922. They had a son, Michael, born in 1926. Her husband was knighted in 1941, making her Lady Welsh. The Welshes divorced in 1947, and she moved to Odiham, Hampshire. There she was active in historic preservation as president of the Odiham Society. Mary Welsh died, aged 89, on 25 June 1986, in Farnborough.