Royal Air Force History

Diana Barnato Walker -
A love affair with flight

Part 1 - The early years, pilots licence and into the ATA

On meeting Diana the first thought that crosses your mind is; "Who would ever think that this fragile lady could once of flown most types of military front-line aircraft and then broken the sound barrier?"

Diana Barnato Walker now lives in Surrey on a sheep farm, where she owns over five hundred sheep. She admits that she has had a wonderful life, but without what she refers to as her Guardian Angel it would have been far shorter! Born 15th January 1918 during an air raid during World War One, Diana was the younger of two girls. She lived with her parents in Hampstead, North London. Sadly, her parents split up when she was four and several years later her mother remarried the wartime pilot Richard Butler Wainwright, who had won the Distinguished Flying Cross. He had been injured during the war but managed to fly his aircraft and observer back across the German line before landing safely. Diana also had an uncle on her father's side that flew in the Great War; Jack Barnato was a pilot for the Royal Naval Air Service.

As a child she used to spend weekends with her father, in his Lingfield home in Surrey, and invariably was collected in one of the Bentley's as her father was the Chairman of Bentley Motors as well as one of the original racing drivers. He won the Le Mans 24-hour race three years on the bounce from 1928 onwards. Unlike her sister Virginia who went to boarding school Diana attended Queen's College in Harley Street, London. Diana's Grandparents on her father's side came from the East End of London. Barnet Isaacs was originally a trader and juggler. This later skill was put to great use on the stage of the Music Halls where he would perform with his friend Harry. When the applauding and cheering came after the performance they would call for "Barnet too!" This soon got merged in to Barnato and as with most nicknames it stuck! Barnato made his name in South Africa, where he founded the Primrose Diamond Mine, and was co-founder of De Beers. This made him his considerable fortune. He lived until the age of 96.

As a child Diana enjoyed horse riding and fox hunting, this was not deemed a suitable pastime for a young girl of the period, so her mother never encouraged it and never thought of buying a riding outfit for Diana, so she always rode in her school uniform. When Diana was twelve her family moved to Nutfield in Surrey. At the age of 18 Diana attended a garden Party at Buckingham Palace as a debutante.

Diana learnt to fly in a Tiger Moth at Brooklands racing track when an hour's lesson used to cost £3. Her flying instructor was a gentleman named Ken Waller, who went on to be an instructor with the Cinque Ports Flying Club. After only six hours flying Ken made Diana fly solo for the first time. Sadly, Diana could not afford many lessons at this rate and soon gave up.

For her twenty-first birthday her father took her to Paris and gave her a Talbot Darracq car, which she took out for a spin and burnt the clutch out because it was a pre-selective gearbox. However she could not get along with the Talbot so her father gave her his four-month-old Bentley instead, a silver-grey Park Ward 4 ½ litre. She had many a pleasant drive, but on a return journey to France she realised that it was uneconomical to drive because of the petrol rationing.

In 1940 Diana joined the hundreds of other young ladies, who deemed it necessary to help the war effort and became a volunteer Red Cross nurse based in France. Diana had shown an interest in joining the Air Transport Auxiliary. A plan was hatched by two of Diana's friends so that she could take the required test for joining the ATA. A.R.O. Macmillian set the test, as he was Chief Flying Instructor for the ATA. At this point Diana had only ten hours of flying experience, far short of the required level of experience. Before taking the actual test Diana practiced on the Egham bypass, in her Bentley. This enabled her to practice the landing and take-off speeds by feeling the wind in her hair, while she drove with the windows open.

The date of her flying test was set for 9th March 1941. The following day Diana was admitted to hospital after a fall from her horse while waiting for news from the ATA. It was not until the following September that Diana had mended sufficiently to discover she had passed, and had succeeded in joining the ATA.

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