Elsie Mackay

Elsie was the third daughter of shipping magnate Lord Inchcape, later the First Earl, and grew up enjoying wealth and privilege. However she was not content to sit back and cruise through her life of luxury. She was known for her energy and thrill seeking lust for life. Elsie worked as a war nurse during the Great War and later turned to acting, becoming one of the London West End Stage's youngest leading ladies. Causing further scandal she eloped and married South African born actor Dennis Wyndham, although the marriage was later to end in an annulment that caused a sensation in the Scottish courts.
Leaving acting, she began working as an interior designer for the shipping line P & 0, probably trying to placate her father who was chairman of the company.
However she was unable to leave behind her love of excitement and adventure. She learned to fly, becoming one of the first British women to gain her license. In 1927 she began to plan her attempt on the Atlantic along with Captain W G R Hinchliffe. Months of secret plotting ended in March 1928 when their single engine monoplane 'The Endeavour' lifted into the sky, leaving behind an almost frenzied press speculating as to who was really in the plane.
As the news leaked out that the Honourable Elsie Mackay had taken off to fly the Atlantic east to west, people on the American eastern seaboard began to watch the skies. Despite many false alarms and much excitement that saw more than 7000 people gather at one airfield, the intrepid pair were never seen again.

The book West Over the Waves, by Jayne Baldwin tells the thrilling story of this young woman's attempt to become the first to fly the Atlantic. It is available price £5 including p & p from Old Church Hall, Church Street, Kirkcowan. Wigtownshire, Scotland,

Elsie Mackay

In March 2008 an heiress defied convention and her family to take off from a snowy airfield on what was descibed at the time as "the most secret flight in aviation history." Her name was the Honourable Elsie Mackay and her aim was to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic. She was also making the attempt in a single engined monoplane flying east to west against the treacherous prevailing winds.
Sadly, like many other aviators before and since, she went missing and was last seen with her pilot making good time over the southernmost tip of the Irish coast. Months later part of the plane's undercarriage washed up on a beach in Donegal, north western Ireland, finally dashing any hope that she and her pilot, the engimatic Captain W G R Hincliffe, had survived.
Since then her story has almost been lost and what information exists is often mistaken. On this blog I hope to put the record straight and let people know about this extraordinary woman.