Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford

Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford ( born September 26, 1865 in Stockbridge, † probably on 22 March 1937 in the North Sea) was an English pilot and ornithologist.

Life

You Caurroy Mary Tribe was the daughter of Walter Harry Tribe, the Anglican Archbishop of Lahore was. In India in Barakpur she married on January 31, 1888 Herbrand Russell. His brother died in 1888 childless, so her husband ascended to the Duke of Bedford. A common son was born on December 21, 1888 at the world.

Mary Russell was enthusiastic birdwatchers activist and spent 1909-1914 much time on Fair Isle ( Shetland ), together with the later president of the British Ornithological Association, William Eagle Clarke. Your ornithological diary was published posthumously.

After the outbreak of World War I, she founded four hospitals - 1914 of the princely estates, then more in Woburn. They even worked there as a nurse and X-ray specialist.

She was also a member of the suffragette movement.

Aviation

As a 60 -year-old discovered in the 1920s, her interest in aviation, especially around their tinnitus cure - yet she later lost her hearing completely. 1930 flew the 64 -year-old solo for the first time. Your major flights with their private Fokker F.VII, partly breaks record, included:

• Flight of the Thames to the Indus - 13,750 kilometers - with her pilot and flight instructor Charles Douglas Barnard, Summer 1928.
• Flight London - Karachi - London - 20.000 mi - with pilot Barnard, August 1929
• Flight London - Cape Town -London - one way only 10 days - with copilot Barnard, April 1930.

Even later she flew passionate.

In March 1937, she fell off the north east coast of England from a de Havilland Moth. Her body could not be recovered.

Honors

She received in 1928 the rank of Dame Commander of the British Empire. They also wore the Awards Royal Red Cross, was a member of the Linnean Society of London and Knight of the British Order of St John.