{{Short description|British first officer pilot (1912–1943)}} {{Infobox person | birth_name = Honor Isabel Pitman | image = Honor Isabel Pitman became Salmon 1941-1.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1912|10|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Kensington, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1943|04|19|1912|10|30|df=y}} | death_place = Roundway Hill, near Calne, Wiltshire, England | death_cause = Plane crash | resting_place = Dyrham | occupation = Air Transport Auxiliary pilot }}
'''Honor Salmon''' (née Pitman) (30 October 1912 – 19 April 1943) was a British First Officer pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War Two. She was one of fifteen women pilots who lost their lives flying in the service of the ATA.
== Early life and education == Honor Isabel Pitman was born in Kensington on 30 October 1912 to Francis Isabel (née Butler) and Ernest Pitman.<ref name=":2" /> Her mother was Irish and her father was a publisher in the family's Bath-based company Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons along with his father and brother Alfred.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pitman Ltd {{!}} Science Museum Group Collection |url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap3816/pitman-ltd |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk |language=en}}</ref> Her paternal grandfather Sir Isaac Pitman, was the inventor of shorthand and the family fortune came from his work. She had five siblings, politician and educational theorist Isaac James Pitman (b. 1901), Christian Ernest (b. 1902), John (b. 1907), Peter (b. 1911) and Diana (b. 1914).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Search names on memorials {{!}} War Memorials Register {{!}} Imperial War Museums |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/names/search?filters%5BmemorialString%5D%5BPitman%20Family%20(WMR%207409)%5D=on |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.iwm.org.uk}}</ref>
Honor Pitman was baptised on 12 December 1912 at Weston All Saints, in Bath, Somerset.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/offers/join?dbid=60857&gsfn&gsln&h=302269905&sub=9288966289260544&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ancestry.co.uk%2Fdiscoveryui-content%2Fview%2F302269905%3A60857 |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.ancestry.co.uk}}</ref>
Pitman was educated at Abbot's Hill School and Westonbirt School, in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE DOVER WAR MEMORIAL PROJECT - Articles - Honor Isabel Salmon |url=http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Information/Articles/Heroes/Salmon.htm |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Honor Isabel Salmon |url=https://sites.southglos.gov.uk/war-memorials/people/honor-isabel-salmon/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=War memorials}}</ref>
== Flying career == Pitman had learned how to fly by the age of 14 but because of her youth and age restrictions on qualifying to undertake lone flying she "always had to fly with someone & could never go to other aerodromes to land" beyond the Bristol and Wessex Aero Club.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Pitman, Honor Isabel (W.36) |url=https://www.ata-ferry-pilots.org/index.php/category-blog-1941/399-pitman-honor-isabel?highlight=WyJzYWxtb24iXQ== |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.ata-ferry-pilots.org}}</ref> Pitman was 24 when she qualified for her pilot's licence (No. 14649), issued by the Royal Aero Club, on 23 December 1936 at the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club, flying a B A Swallow with a 85 hp Pobjoy Cataract radial engine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificates, 1910-1950 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1283/images/31032_A200016-01407?pId=11988 |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.ancestry.co.uk}}</ref> In 1936 Pitman joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).<ref name=":3" /> By 1938 Pitman had travelled to Australia. She had flown 120 hours as a qualified pilot in small Swallows, Cadets and Aeronca aircraft before the start of the Second World War ended civilian flying.<ref name=":1" />
== World War Two - ATS and ATA ==
=== Auxiliary Territorial Service === Members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry became part of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) with the outbreak of war and Pitman was initially assigned to the 7th Wiltshire ATS Motor Company, based in Southampton. She was later promoted to Mechanics Section Leader for the 12th Oxford Motor Transport.<ref name=":3" /> In the 1939 Census she was listed as living in Mons House in Amesbury, Wiltshire, and working as a driver in the ATS.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=1939 England and Wales Register |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/offers/join?dbid=61596&gsfn&gsln&h=40372976&sub=2533575459110912&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ancestry.co.uk%2Fdiscoveryui-content%2Fview%2F40372976%3A61596 |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.ancestry.co.uk}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
In March 1940 Pitman wrote to the Air Transport Auxiliary as she was aware they were seeking qualified women pilots to fly planes in transit. ''"I would very much like to know if there is the possibility of my joining your section of the service? I am an 'A' pilot & have only done about 120hrs flying in small club planes - Swallows, Cadets and Aroncas, but I am prepared to take any training in any line if I could help you. 4 years ago I joined the FANYs in hopes of a flying section being started, but this never materialized.... I had been hoping on my return from Australia last year to have my own plane & work for my 'B' licence but instead I have had to content myself with reading text books."''<ref name=":1" />
=== Air Transport Auxiliary === She was eventually invited to take a test flight by the Air Transport Auxiliary but her lack of flying experience meant that she did not join the ATA as a pilot until 15 March 1941.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=ATA Personnel |url=https://archive.atamuseum.org/personnel.php |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=archive.atamuseum.org}}</ref>
Pitman was stationed at the ATA's No. 15 Ferry Pool, at Hamble in Southampton with the rank of First Officer pilot.<ref name=":4" /> She married soon after joining the ATA and was known as Honor Salmon. She flew 25 different types of aircraft and logged 370 flying hours during her ATA career. Women pilots ferried planes around the UK, from factories to RAF stations and maintenance units.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />
For a year her flying career went well. On both the 5 and 6 March 1942, she suffered two accidents, one in a Spitfire during taxing, the second in a Hurricane when the starboard undercarriage collapsed.<ref name=":1" /> This caused her significant anxiety and she was placed on a month's rest, and then instructed to take a pilot's refresher course. The instructor felt that she had benefitted from this and that she needed to apply more common sense to her flying.<ref name=":3" />
The ATA monitored her flying, particularly after a further accident on 6 August<ref name=":1" /> 1942 when she overran the edge of the runway in a Spitfire and the plane nosed over and the propeller was damaged. She was not held responsible for this accident as lack of aerodrome control was identified. She was considered an over-confident pilot at times but well liked by her ATA colleagues. Commandant Pauline Gower described her as "a charming and gallant person."<ref name=":1" />
== Personal life == Honor Pitman married Major Henry Methuen Pomeroy Salmon (1901-1953) in St Peter's Church, Dyrham, Gloucestershire, on 20 June 1941, after which she became known as Honor Salmon. Her husband owned Tockington Manor in Gloucestershire. There were no children from the marriage.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald 21 Jun 1941, page 8 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/782822009/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref>
== Death and commemoration == thumb|St Peters Church, Dyrham Honor Salmon died age 30 on 19 April 1943 when the Airspeed Oxford MN765 plane she was transporting in bad weather crashed in a field on high ground at Roundway Hill near Calne in Wiltshire. The ATA investigation found that she had continued to fly in bad weather and was at fault.<ref name=":1" />
She was buried at St Peters, in Dyrham, Gloucestershire, near her family’s home.<ref name="CWGC">{{Cite web |last=CWGC |title=First Officer Honor Isabel Salmon {{!}} War Casualty Details 2451192 |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2451192/honor-isabel-salmon/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=CWGC |language=en}}</ref> Two of her brothers who also died in service during the Second World War. Peter Pitman-Butler, a Captain in the 7th Queen's Own Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps, died in July 1940, and was buried in the Cairo War Cemetery, Egypt<ref>{{Cite web |title=Captain Peter Pitman Butler {{!}} Christ Church, University of Oxford |url=https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/cathedral/war-memorials/captain-peter-pitman-butler |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.chch.ox.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Pitman-Butler |url=https://sites.southglos.gov.uk/war-memorials/people/peter-pitman-butler/ |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=War memorials}}</ref> and John Pitman, a Captain in the 3rd King's Own Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps, was killed in Palestine on 1 October 1943, and buried at the Khayat Beach War Cemetery, Israel. The three siblings are commemorated on a plaque in the church at Dyrham.<ref name=":0" />
Honor Salmon left £32,279 in her will; her husband and brother Christian Earnest Pitman were granted probate in 25 November 1943.<ref>{{Cite web |title=England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1904/images/32858_625988_3357-00011?pId=16642114 |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=www.ancestry.co.uk}}</ref>{{better|reason=primary source|date=July 2025}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon, Honor}} Category:1912 births Category:1943 deaths Category:People educated at Abbot's Hill School Category:People educated at Westonbirt School Category:British women aviators Category:Air Transport Auxiliary pilots Category:British civilians killed in World War II Category:Auxiliary Territorial Service officers Category:British women in World War II