Researching Jean Batten

Born in Rotorua, Batten went to England with her mother to learn to fly. She made two unsuccessful attempts to fly to Australia from England solo, before finally achieving the feat in May 1934, taking just under 15 days to fly the distance in a Gipsy Moth biplane. The flight set a new record for the women's solo flight between the two countries. After a publicity tour around Australia and New Zealand, she flew the Gipsy Moth back to England, setting the solo women's record for the return flight to England from Australia. In doing so she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia and back again. In November 1935, she set the absolute record of 61 hours, 15 minutes, for flying from England to Brazil. In the course of this endeavour, made in a Percival Gull Six monoplane, she completed the fastest crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean and was the first woman to make the England–South America flight. The pinnacle of her flying achievements was completed in October 1936, when she flew her Gull to New Zealand from England, covering the distance in a little over 11 days, an absolute record which would stand for 44 years. The following year she made her last major flight, flying from Australia to England to set a new solo record. During the Second World War, Batten unsuccessfully applied to serve with the Air Transport Auxiliary. Instead she joined the short-lived Anglo-French Ambulance Corps and worked in the munitions industry. In the years following the war, Batten lived a reclusive and nomadic life with her mother in Europe and the Caribbean. Her mother, a strong personality who dominated her daughter, died in Tenerife in 1967, and soon afterwards Batten returned to public life with several appearances in relation to the aviation industry and her own record achievements. She had no close relationships and acquaintances noted her vain and self-absorbed character. Her death in Mallorca in November 1982 from complications of a dog bite went publicly unnoticed at the time due to a bureaucratic error. Her fate was eventually discovered by a journalist in September 1987.