Salute to the miner's daughter who helped win the war

RAF PLOTTER'S VITAL ROLE IS COMMEMORATED IN A NEW EXHIBITION

- By POST REPORTER

A NOTTINGHAM-BORN woman who helped the RAF to guide aircraft on Second World War missions has been honoured in a new exhibition.

The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC), in Lincoln, has commemorated the extraordinary contributions of wartime women with the launch of the exhibition, as part of Women’s History Month.

Guests gathered last week to mark the unveiling of ten 8ft steel silhouettes honouring the bravery and resilience of wartime women.

The Women in War silhouettes include Margaret Hourigan, who grew up in Nottingham. Born in 1922, she was a miner's daughter who endured the hardships of the Depression before answering the call to service in 1940.

She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) before rising to the rank of sergeant as a plotter with Fighter and Bomber Commands, notably serving at RAF Waddington and Skellingthorpe, and earning a mention in dispatches.

After the war, she married an Australian pilot, emigrating with him to the other side of the world.

Margaret attended the official opening of the IBCC in 2018 and died in Adelaide on January 7 last year, aged 101.