Rosamund Everard-Steenkamp

Rosamund Everard-Steenkamp (1907–19 March 1946) was a South African aviator and artist.

Rosamund was born in Bonnefoi,^[2] near Carolina^[3] in Transvaal, South Africa, daughter of Charles Joseph Everard and his wife Bertha. The family later moved to Moedig, Transvaal.^[2]

She was a talented artist, trained by her mother and also experienced through life in artistic circles in Paris, whose work was shown at the South African National Art Gallery.^[3]

Everard first learned to fly in the 1930s, becoming competent to make regular tours of Europe in her own aircraft.^[2]

During the World War II she was initially employed as a flying instructor in South Africa and later worked an aircraft shuttle service between that country and Cairo in north Africa.^[2]

During that period she was married, to Lieutenant H N F Steenkamp of the South African Air Force, who lost his life on service^[2] within South Africa on 1 December 1942.^[4]

Everard-Steenkamp joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1944 and went on complete 3,500 flying hours in the UK.^[2] and serve to rank of First Officer.^[5] She was one of the first women to fly a jet airplane, the Gloster Meteor.^[1][2]

Everard-Steenkamp died in an airplane accident in England^[1] on 19 March 1946, reportedly aged 32,^[5][2] when ferrying a Spitfire XIV (NH695) from RAF Hamble, Hampshire, to RAF High Ercall, Shropshire. Her plane was observed performing minor aerobatics in the vicinity of Bewdley, Worcestershire. After completing two slow-rolls, the plane went into a 45-degree dive from which it did not recover height, struck some trees on a hill top, crossed a small valley, then crashed on the hillside opposite at Postensplain near Button Oak just inside Shropshire.^[6] She is buried in All Saints' Cemetery, Maidenhead, Berkshire.^[5]