People

The Nachthexen or “Night Witches” was the German nickname given to the formidable female aviators from the 588th Soviet Night Bomber Regiment. The pilots saw their name as a badge of honour.

This regiment flew bombing missions for the Soviet Air Force against the German military during the Second World War. The female squadron trained as pilots, navigators and engineers.

The group consisted of 40 two person crews, flying over 30,000 missions and dropping 23,000 tons of bombs.

Each pilot flew more than 800 missions often carrying out eight every night. They were an unique unit, being the only all female combatants during World War II and were the most highly decorated female squadron in the Soviet Union Air Force.

The Night Witches flew biplanes made of wood and canvas which were originally built for crop dusting and training purposes. But this made them light which made it easier for the women to fly them. However, because of this it also made the planes slow and they could only carry six bombs at a time.

There were no parachutes on board the planes and the female pilots had no radar or technology to help guide them, only a compass and maps.

Due to the aeroplane cockpit being open, pilots would often suffer from numbness and frostbite during their flights.

The planes were very slow, with the maximum speed of the biplane being slower than the “stall” speed of German aircraft, so the Night Witches used the attack method of idling the engines and gliding before dropping a bomb.

This stealth mode left only the whooshing sound of the wind to give away their location and the Nachthexen would often return from the missions with bullets through their maps, planes and helmets.

The German fighters in their highly advanced aircraft feared the Night Witches because of their bravery and stealth.

The longest serving First Lady of the United States of America was a woman named Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and she was known as one of the most outspoken first lady’s of the White House.

Eleanor Roosevelt was born on 11th October 1884 in New York City into the Roosevelt dynasty and she had a very privileged and political upbringing.

Her uncle was Theodore Roosevelt, who was the President of the USA from 1901-1909.

When Eleanor was 10 years old she lost both her parents to diphtheria. She was sent to England to be educated and became a strong, confident and independent woman. She chose to work as a social worker which served her well in later life.

In 1905, she married Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her distant 5th cousin and they went on to have six children. Franklin was a senator and Eleanor was active in the American Red Cross during World War I.

In 1921, Franklin contracted polio, which left his legs paralysed but Eleanor persuaded Franklin to continue in politics and with her help he became the 32nd President of the United States in 1933.

Whilst Eleanor Roosevelt was the first lady, she changed the role of purely being a hostess to that of a politician.

She spoke passionately about women’s rights, human rights, racial discrimination, welfare, workers’ rights and children’s issues.

She worked with the Women’s Trade Union League to abolish child labour and set up a minimum wage.

Eleanor was also active in the civil rights movement insisting on equal rights for everyone, regardless of race, even going so far as to break tradition and invite several African-Americans into the White House for social and political causes.

As the policy of presidential terms was different back in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he spent four terms in office from 1933 to 1945, which spanned across the Great Depression and World War II. This is how Eleanor Roosevelt remains to be the longest serving first lady of the USA.

The policy has however now changed, so that a sitting president can only serve a maximum of two consecutive terms (8 years).

Eleanor’s husband Franklin died in 1945 and the then Vice President, Harry Truman became president.

Truman appointed Eleanor as a delegate to the United Nations, a post she held from 1945-1953.

She became the Chair of the UN’s Human Rights Commission and during her time she helped to co-write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1961, at the age of 77 years old, the new president John F. Kennedy appointed Eleanor to become involved in the UN again along with the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corp and also the chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

Eleanor was known as one of the greatest humanitarians with an overwhelming sensitivity to those in need.

She sought out political and social change wanting to make the world a fairer and better place before sadly passing away on 7th November 1962.

The accolade of being the oldest person in history belongs to a lady called Jeanne Louise Calment, who was born on 21st February 1875 in Arles, France and lived there her whole life.

Jeanne was the oldest verified living person ever, according to the Guinness Book Of World Records. She lived to be 122 years and 164 days old, passing away on the 4th August 1997.

During her lifetime, she met the world renowned painter Vincent van Gogh, when he walked into her uncle’s art shop to buy some canvasses for his paintings. She also remembered seeing the Eiffel Tower being built in 1889.

She got married at 21 years to a wealthy store owner named Fernand.

Although Jeanne never worked, she kept herself active with various hobbies, such as tennis, cycling, swimming, playing the piano, opera and roller-skating.

Jeanne outlived her husband, daughter and even her grandson. She decided at the age of 85 years old to take up fencing and continued to ride her bike until she was 100 years.

She smoked from the age of 21 years until she reached 117 years old and in 1995, when she reached 115 years, she starred as herself in a film called ‘Vincent and Me’, which made her the oldest actress ever to appear in a film.

Jeanne also starred in a film about her life called ‘Beyond 120 years with Jeanne Calment’ and also featured on an album called Time’s Mistress in 1996, on which she was recorded speaking over a backing of rap music.

Jeanne claimed that apart from her calm nature, her diet of olive oil, port, wine and 2 pounds of chocolate every week sustained her long life and youthful looks.

The first woman to ever fly into space was a Russian woman called Valentina Tereshkova. She was born on 6th March 1937 in the small rural town named Maslennikovo, Russia.

Valentina only attended part of her schooling and undertook most of her education through correspondence courses, but she was always fascinated with parachuting.

She trained as an amateur skydiver and made her first jump aged 22 years old. At the same time Valentina also became the secretary of the Komsomol (Young Communist League) and later joined the Communist Party.

At 25 yeas old, Valentina was selected for the female cosmonaut corps. She was chosen mainly due to her expertise with parachuting/skydiving, but also met the other criteria, which was being under the age of 30, less than 5ft 7 inches tall and weighing less than 154 pounds.

Valentina was chosen from more than 400 applicants and five finalists to pilot the spacecraft Vostok 6 in 1963.

On the 16th June 1963, Valentina took off on her solo mission and became the first woman to fly in space and as she was only an honorary member of the Soviet Air Force she also became the first civilian to do so.

Valentina spent 3 days in space and orbited Earth 48 times during her flight.

During this time, she made notes of her observations, photographed the horizon and during those three days in space, logged more time in space than the combined total of any American (male) astronauts that had gone before her.

After Valentina returned to Earth, it would be another 19 years before another female would take to orbit. The Soviet Union closed down the all female cosmonaut group in 1969.

After her space flight, Valentina became a well respected politician and engineer. She studied at Zhukovsky Air Force Academy and became a cosmonaut engineer with a PhD in engineering.

She still remains a hero in post Soviet Russia and was honoured as a flag-carrier at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

She’s was also part of the Soviet Unions Peace Council and has been awarded many medals and honours in her lifetime, which includes the Hero of the Soviet Union medal (Russia’s highest medal of honour), the United Nations Medal of Peace and the Simba International Women’s Movement Award.

Valentina Tereshkova is considered to be one of the Soviet Union’s top three cosmonauts, which includes Yuri Gagarin and Alexey Leonov.

The Moon’s Tereshkova Crater was named after her and despite being in her eighties now, she has said that she would be willing to go on a one way trip to Mars if the opportunity ever arose.

Rachel Elizabeth Johnson, known as Betty, was born in Butetown, Cardiff back on 6th November 1934. She had a Jamaican father and a Barbadian mother and was brought up in the town of Tiger Bay.

Betty’s father was killed during World War II and her mother struggled to make ends meet.

Betty attended a local school and loved reading Enid Blyton books about girls at boarding schools. She later won a scholarship to Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff which set her on her path to achieving her goals.

However, Betty was surrounded by mostly white, middle-class girls and it was here that the headteacher almost crushed her dreams. When she told the headteacher that she to wanted to become a teacher, the response was “Oh my dear, the problems would be insurmountable”.

Although at first these words devastated Betty, they also made her more resilient and focused. She was always near the top of her class and couldn’t see why she shouldn’t be awarded with the same opportunities as all the other girls.

She became pregnant at 17 whilst doing her A-Levels and consequently married Robert Campbell in 1953.

Even though she had three young children she heard that Cardiff Teacher Training College was admitting women for the first time. Betty became one of only six female students to attend in 1960.

Betty overcame racism and setbacks along the way and whilst she juggled to look after her young family, she qualified as a teacher.

She took up her first teaching post in Llanrumney, before returning to teach in Mount Stuart Primary School, Butetown, where she still faced some hostility from parents.

Not only did she continue to teach and defy all the doubting parents but Betty went on to become the first black female headteacher in Wales in the 1970’s.

Having been influenced by a trip she took to America, Betty Campbell began teaching children about slavery, black history and the apartheid system which was happening in South Africa at that time.

Putting black culture on the Cardiff curriculum, she also taught the children about Harriet Tubman and other civil right activists.

Also Betty’s pupils learned about the contribution people of colour gave to British society and helped to create the Black History Month.

She also became a member of the Commission for Racial Equality, and it was through this that Nelson Mandela requested a meet with her on his only visit to Wales in 1998.

She also served as a councillor for Butetown from 1999 to 2004.

Whilst Campbell was the headteacher at Mount Stuart School she raised its profile in the United Kingdom. Even Prince Charles attended a school’s annual St David’s Day Eisteddfod in 1994.

Betty was also awarded an MBE in 2003 for her services to education and community life.

Betty Campbell died on 13 October 2017, having been ill for some time.

Recently, in a campaign launched by BBC Wales, Betty Campbell won a public vote and will become Wales’ first statue of a notable Welsh woman forgotten to history.

The statue will be placed in Central Square in Cardiff City centre and will be unveiled in Spring 2020.