To mark Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day on Wednesday we feature a characterful portrait of Worcester pilot Sheila Scott by Ernest Waldron West from the Worcester City Museum Collection.

Scott, who was born in Worcester in 1922, found a passion in flying at the age of 36 and acquired not only her private pilot’s licence, but a commercial licence, a night licence and she also learned how to fly helicopters and hot air balloons.

In 1966 she became the first solo British pilot to fly around the world in a light aircraft, breaking her first around the world record.

During the flight she faced radio problems among other issues, but she persevered for 189 flying hours over 34 days, covering 34,000 miles.

Sheila Scott went on to fly around the world solo two more times, as well as breaking many aviation records. She was the founder and first governor of the British Branch of Ninety Nines – the association for licensed women pilots first founded by Amelia Earhart.

She received the Royal Aero Club’s Gold Medal in 1972, and was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1968. She also received the Brabazon of Tara Award in 1965, 1967 and 1968. She lost her battle against cancer in 1988, at the age of 66.

Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum’s Balcony Gallery is showing a new display of rarely-exhibited paintings from the museum collection; Characters from the Collection features film stars, artists’ muses and great Worcester leaders and introduces their accompanying stories. You can visit for free Monday-Saturday, from 10.30am-4.30pm and find out more at museumsworcestershire.org.uk.

  • Thanks to University of Worcester work experience student Charlotte Freshman who researched Sheila Scott for her dissertation.