World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseDolores Theresa Sorour was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1922. Having taken a liking to the South African female hockey player Jackie Rissik, she took on the nickname "Jackie" herself. At the age of 15, she acquired the "A" flying license. Two years later, she became the first South African woman to perform a parachute jump. In 1938, she moved to England, United Kingdom with the intention of getting her "B" flying licence with the Aeronautical College at Witney, Oxford. When WW2 began in Europe, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, serving at a radar station in Rye in East Sussex, England. In Jul 1940, she was recruited by Pauline Gower of the Air Transport Auxiliary, becoming the youngest female pilot of the ATA at the age of 18. During the war, Sorour ferried 1,500 aircraft of 83 different types between various factories and airfields. In 1945, she married engineer Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Moggridge and took on his surname; they would have two daughters together. After the war, she joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and qualified to fly for the RAF in 1953; she was among the first five women to earn her wings with the RAF. With the RAF, she ferried Spitfire fighters squadrons stationed in India and Burma. In 1957, she flew, as the co-pilot, a transport plane carrying Longford Engineering Company's refrigerators and freezers to their potential customers in South Africa. She then worked as a pilot for Channel Airways, flying between Southend, Essex, England and the Channel Islands. She published her memoirs in 1957 titled Woman Pilot; it was later republished as Spitfire Girl: My Life in the Sky. Jackie Moggridge passed away in 2004.

Jackie Moggridge Timeline