Batten, Jean Gardner, 1909-1982

Jean Batten was born on 15 September 1909 in Rotorua, New Zealand. She and her mother moved from New Zealand to Britain in 1930 where Batten immediately pursued her ambition of learning to fly. In 1934, she flew solo from England to Australia in 14 days, 22½ hours, shattering Amy Johnson’s record by four days and becoming a world celebrity. She became the first woman to make the return journey to England and followed that up with a world record flight from England to Brazil, at the same time becoming the first woman to fly the South Atlantic solo. Batten in 1936 made the first direct solo flight from England to New Zealand and the return to England from Australia was a record for pilots of either sex and she was also the first person to simultaneously hold England-Australia solo records in both directions. Batten lived alone in later life in the Canary Islands and died in Spain in 1982.