Stark, Amy Gwendoline (1910 - 1994)

Gwen Stark gained her pilot's licence shortly before the outbreak of World War II and was one of the first women appointed to a position in the Women's Australian Auxiliary Air Force. She served in the first instance as assistant section officer and later as recruiting officer for New South Wales. Before the war, she was active in the Australian Women's Flying Club, which became the New South Wales branch of the Women's Air Training Corps, and was its commandant in 1940. After World War II she went to Europe and worked with the Berlin Air Lift at a Royal Air Force station in Germany for several months. In 1964 she became the federal president of the Australian Women's Pilots' Association and was appointed to the Order of the British Empire on 8 June 1968 for her services to aviation.

• Caldwell, Gwen (married name)

She volunteered to enlist in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) and was appointed as assistant section officer on probation from 10 March 1941.

Joyce Thomson writes in her book The WAAAF in Wartime Australia that after supervising the recruiting of the first airwomen enrolled in Sydney, Gwen was posted to WAAAF Training Depot to join the short administrative course given to the initial group of officers. She returned to Sydney as WAAAF staff officer, RAAF Headquarters, Central Area, Point Piper. Gwen was posted to various senior appointments, including staff officer, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Headquarters, North-Eastern Area, during Japanese air raids on Townsville.

Gwen Stark was discharged from the WAAAF on 8 August 1946 having obtained the rank of Wing Officer. In that year she helped establish the WAAAF branch of the RAAFA (NSW Division). She was the first president and from 1961 until her death in 1994 was patron of the branch.

On 8 June 1968, under the name Amy Gwendoline Caldwell, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for her services to aviation.

Membership

• RAAF Association (NSW Division) - WAAAF Branch (1946 - )

  Patron (1961-1994)

  [1946 - 1994]

Presided

• RAAF Association (NSW Division) - WAAAF Branch (1946 - )

  Inaugual

Related Corporate Bodies

• Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) (1941 - 1947)

  [1941 - 1946]

Online Resources

• Deparment of Veterans' Affairs, 'STARK, AMY GWENDOLINE', in World War 2 Nominal Roll, 2002, http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/script/veteran.asp?ServiceID=R&VeteranID=1070254. [ Details... ]

See also

• Mann, Sheila, The girls were up there too; Australian women in aviation, Department of Aviation, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, ACT, 1986, 24 pp. [ Details... ]
• Thomson, Joyce A, The WAAAF in Wartime Australia, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1992, 422 pp. [ Details... ]