Amy Johnson

[NoLoveofMine]

Not only does she have the best name anyone could possibly have but what a fantastic woman: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson

[NoLoveofMine]

And she got married in the 30s but still didn't change her surname (and what a fantastic surname)!

[TittyGolightly]

🙌🏼

[NoLoveofMine]

:D

[KanyesLunchbox]

Thanks, I'd never heard of her, I must tell dd about her (and her great name )

[Datun]

Crikey, Amy Johnson is famous!

What does it tell you about how women are not celebrated, when people have never heard of her?

I'm not blaming you guys obviously, but I'm fairly shocked you haven't heard of her.

[chickendrizzlecake]

And a Yorkshirewoman to boot!

[MineKraftCheese]

I'm called this too! Differently spelt first name though and I must confess I got the surname from my husband - hated my original last name.

I'm proud to sort of share my name with such an amazing person

[MyOtherProfile]

I always thought she was really famous but then one of our houses at school was named after her so we all knew her story.

[insancerre]

There is an Amy Johnson way next to Blackpool airport

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

I always thought she was really well known too, but then I have family in aviation.

I think she was in a fairly recent Doctor Who wasn't she, hopefully that helps!

I really like the fact there was a about her, written by men, but just saying how wonderful she was and praising what she was doing, rather than how she looked. I'm not sure you'd get that now.

[MorrisZapp]

Well who wouldn't want to have 'aviatrix' in their passport?

I'm a genealogist and I get laughs every day from people who have very ordinary names that just happen to be the same as a famous person.

Michael Jackson - common as muck. But my favourite is the classic Scottish 'old lady name' : Jessie James.

[80sMum]

I learned about Amy Johnson and some other famous women when I was very young, partly from books, partly from school and partly from my parents.

I had a book that featured Amy Johnson, Amelia Earhart, Edith Cavell, Helen Keller, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman, Marie Curie to name a few. At school I learned about Elizabeth Garett Anderson, and Nancy Astor.

[BigDeskBob]

She's from my home town, so it's mandatory to have written at least four school projects about her. I'm sure I just flip flopped between her and Karen Briggs, a judo champion at the time.

Its a shame that so many women from that time of history are forgotten.

[NoLoveofMine]

It's interesting to think of people with nondescript names which just happen to be the same as someone famous

Amy Johnson is remarkable and it's great if more people can discover her and you can tell your daughter about her KanyesLunchbox! I thought that when I first read of the song about her Polkadots. It seems despite the era she was genuinely revered and seen as a heroine by people, not least those men who wrote a song praising her as an inspiration.

That book sounds brilliant 80sMum. I'd love to find out more about all those women and discover others I'm not aware of!

[cadnowyllt]

But my favourite is the classic Scottish 'old lady name' : Jessie James.

Scottish ? Dunno about 'Jessie', I thought that the surname 'James' is one of those common surnames found in Wales, like 'Davies', 'Evans' and 'Jones'.

[MumBod]

She went to my school. We had a bust of her in the entrance hall.

[TheSmallClangerWhistlesAgain]

I remember coming across her first in a school project, too. We were learning about Early Flight, and we went to see one of her planes in a museum.

Whatever happened to good old fashioned school projects like Early Flight, The Anglo Saxons, Pond Life or Victorian Schoolchildren? DD only ever seemed to do recycling or healthy eating at primary. We learned quite a lot about women in history and in the world.

[FelixtheMouse]

If you think Amy Johnson was not impressive, try googling Flora Sands!

[FelixtheMouse]

WAS impressive!
F*ing auto correct.

[IndominusRex]

Another AJ fan here. And agree about school subjects - we learned about the Suffragettes and Boudica at primary school.

[NoLoveofMine]

Another fantastic woman is Marianne North, who I'd like to start a thread about as well but I'm not sure it'd be too welcome to bombard the board starting threads about the countless fantastic women who not enough is known about. If anyone gets the chance to visit her gallery at Kew Gardens it's well worth doing. She travelled around the world on her own painting exotic plants and various scenes she came across - the gallery documents this with hundreds of her pieces adorning the walls (I believe she arranged it all herself as well). More here: www.kew.org/kew-gardens/attractions/marianne-north-gallery

[NoLoveofMine]

I hadn't read about her FelixtheMouse, thank you - she's someone I must read more about.

Another woman well worth reading about on a similar note is Eileen Nearne (news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9019000/9019821.stm).

[GrumpyoldBlonde]

I've always been interested in Florence 'Pancho' Barnes. She beat Amelia Ear harts record and founded the stunt pilots union.

She was pretty cool