Jean Batten
Jane Gardner Batten was born on 15 September 1909. She lived in Rotorua then moved to Howick. She attended a local convent school in Howick. Later she moved to Auckland and attended Melmerley Ladies School. Then she became interested to flying and got her license in December 1932.
Jean Gardner Batten was born on the 15 September 1909 in Rotorua. She soon became known as Jean. In 1913 she moved to Auckland with her parents and two older brothers. Her father, Frederick was a dentist in 1917 and volunteered to join the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and was sent to the Western Front. Following Frederick's return in 1919, Batten's parents quarrelled and around 1920 they separated. Her mother, Ellen, initially took her to live in Howick, where she attended a local convent school, They returned to the city in 1922 and Batten's father paid for her to board at Ladies College in Remuera.
When the Batten family moved to Auckland she started to attend Melmerley Ladies School, a private school, before switching to a state school a year later. In 1922, Jean was sent to a ladies college, a girl's boarding college in Remuera at her father's expense. Althrough she later described her time at the school as a happy one, she had few friends and many of her fellow students found her to be aloof.
Jean Batten was New Zealand's greatest aviator, celebrated around the world for her heroic solo flights during the 1930s. She flew the Percival Gull from Australia to England in 5 days and 18 hours. In November 1935 she became the first woman to fly herself across the South Atlantic. In October she went one step further and made the first ever direct flight from England and New Zealand.
Batten's parents sent her to England to study music, but she became intensely interested in flying and earned a private pilot's license in 1930. She gained a commercial pilot's license in 1932. She learnt how to fly at the London Aeroplane Club and gained her 'A' license in December. Jean Batten internationally celebrated her world record for her solo flight from England to New Zealand in 11 days and 45 minutes.
Jean Batten was the first woman to fly from England to South America. Jean Batten was New Zealand's greatest aviator, celebrated around the world for her heroic solo flights during the 1930s. Following her success she moved in and out of public view before dying in obscurity in Majorca, Spain, in 1982.
