Richarda Morrow-Tait 'Dikki' (1923-1982)

Richarda Morrow-Tait by PA Images.  Editorial and non-profit social media license

Richarda was inspired to fly whilst at school during the 1930s, which was known as the golden age of female aviators.  She signed up with the Cambridge Aero Club after the Second World War.  Two years later with only 85 hours flying experience she started her round the world flight, setting off from Cambridge Airport to her official start point at Croydon Airport.  What was supposed to be a flight of six to eight weeks turned into an adventure of a year and a day ending on 19 August 1949.  She used two aeroplanes named ‘Thursday’s Child’ and ‘Next Thursday’s Child’.  At this pivotal time in Richarda’s life her home was in the St Regis flats, Chesterton Road, Cambridge.  The flats have been replaced with student accommodation for Clare College, Cambridge, and the blue plaque for Richarda is installed on the outside of that building.

Richarda Morrow-Tait ‘Dikki’ was born on 22 November 1923 in Ickleton, Cambridgeshire.  She was the youngest of three daughters born to Arthur Lionel Routh and Avery Caroline Routh (née Tetley).  She was the granddaughter of Richarda Biddell (née Airy) and George Biddell Airy, 7th Astronomer Royal.  Aged 10, she attended the Stephen Perse Cambridge (then the Perse School for Girls), which was founded as part of the 19th century movement to educate women, providing them with the opportunities to forge lives and careers for themselves. 

In 1939 Richarda left school and earned qualifications at the Cambridge Secretarial Training School.  She went on to work as a secretary for a civil engineer called Norman Morrow-Tait, who eventually became her husband.  It was her husband who encouraged her to learn to fly at the Cambridge Aero Club after the Second World War as soon as the ban on civil aviation was lifted on 1 January 1946.  She was one of three people to sign up at Cambridge Aero Club on the first day possible to do so, and the first person in the country to obtain her civil flying licence after the War.  Her daughter, Anna, was born later the same year.  She had already started to plan for her round the world flight.

On 18 August 1948, aged 24, Richarda left Cambridge Airport to fly to her official start point from Croydon Airport.  Her navigator was Michael Townsend, a mature Geography student from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, who had recently returned from war service with the RAF.  The aeroplane was a Percival Proctor IV (G-AJMU) called ‘Thursday’s Child’ as Richarda was born on a Thursday, and she had ‘far to go’.  The flight was eventful and included a minor crash at the first stop in France; a 9-weeks’ delay in India for new parts; a forced landing in Japan by British Mustangs; an escort from a US B-17 to the Aleutian islands; and then a major crash in Alaska in snowy conditions. 

Richarda then spent four months fundraising for a new aeroplane including giving lectures, radio interviews, and singing in a nightclub.  She also had to find a second navigator as her first navigator had to return to Cambridge to sit his final exams and graduate from University.  Richarda’s second aeroplane was a BT-13 Vultee Valiant (NX-54084) called ‘Next Thursday’s Child’.  Her second navigator was Jack Ellis, who had also served in the RAF and who remained with Richarda for three months, until her first navigator returned.   

Richarda landed back at Croydon Airport on 19 August 1949 where she was greeted on arrival by the Press, and her husband and daughter, who handed her a bunch of gladioli.  Her flight had taken one year and one day.

Following her return, Richarda wrote the story of her flight, but she did not go on to publish it in her lifetime due to the scandal caused by returning home pregnant by her first navigator - and her husband divorced her.

Richarda maintained her flying licence into the 1960s and lead a relatively quiet life after her round the world flight.  She died, aged 59, on 17 December 1982 in Maldon, Essex.

After Richarda’s death the manuscript of her story was re-discovered by her second husband who went on to publish ‘Thursday’s Child: The Story of the First Flight Round the World by a Woman Pilot’, which was jointly edited by him together with Norman H. Ellison.

Richarda still holds the record for being the youngest woman with a navigator to fly around the world, and until 2022 retained the overall record for the youngest woman to fly around the world. 

19 August 2024 was the 75th anniversary of the completion of the flight, and a blue plaque unveiling event took place on that date at Marshall of Cambridge, Cambridge Airport.  At the event, a new variety of white miniature gladiolus named ‘Thursday’s Child’ after Dikki’s aeroplane were baptised.

Cambridge Past, Present & Future is very grateful to the many people and organisations who made this plaque and the event possible, in particular the support of Emma Easterbrook, Giles Townsend, Clare College, Cambridge Aero Club and Marshall of Cambridge.

Oonagh Langrishe-Vernon, Nick Langrishe, Polly Vacher, Emma Easterbrook, Jaqueline Tasioulas, Penny Heath, Terry Holloway