🇬🇧 WWII uncovered: Honouring the Service of Corporal Lilian Bader the First Black Woman to Join the RAF.
Lilian Bailey was born on 18 February 1918 in Liverpool England.
At the age of 9 years old, Lilian and her three brothers were orphaned when their World War I veteran father Marcus Bailey passed away. Lilian grew up in a convent until her 20th birthday.
In 1939, at the onset of WWII, Lilian applied to join the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes or the NAAFI at Catterick Garrison, in Yorkshire.
Unfortunately she was dismissed after 7 weeks when it was revealed that her father was born in Barbados.
On 28 March 1941 Lilian joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and became the first woman in the Air Force to qualify as an Instrument Repairer and was posted to RAF Shawbury.
In December of that year, Lilian was promoted to Leading Aircraftwoman and then Acting Corporal.
"In 1943, Lilian married Ramsay Bader, a tank driver with the 147th Essex Yeomanry Field Regiment, Royal Artillery.
She was given compassionate discharge from her position in February 1944, when she became pregnant with her first son."
After the war Ramsay and Lilian relocated to Northamptonshire to raise their family. Lilian would go on to study at London University receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree. She was employed as a teacher. A profession that she enjoyed well into her mid '80s.
Corporal Lilian Bader passed away on 14 March 2015 at the age of 97 years old. Lest We Forget.
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