Mary Teston Luis Bell was an Australian aviator and founding leader of the Women's Air Training Corps (WATC), a volunteer organisation that provided support to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. She later helped establish the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), the country's first and largest women's wartime service, which grew to more than 18,000 members by 1944.
Mary Bell at a council meeting of the Women's Air Training Corps, 1941
Bell (seated second from right) at a council meeting of the Women's Air Training Corps, June 1941; on Bell's right is her successor as Commandant of the WATC, Countess Bective
WAAAF recruiting poster, c. 1942
Clare Grant Stevenson, AM, MBE was the inaugural Director of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), from May 1941 to March 1946. As such, she was described in 2001 as "the most significant woman in the history of the Air Force". Formed as a branch of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in March 1941, the WAAAF was the first and largest uniformed women's service in Australia during World War II, numbering more than 18,000 members by late 1944 and making up over thirty per cent of RAAF ground staff.
Group Officer Clare Stevenson, RAAF Headquarters, 1944
Wing Officer Stevenson (front, second left) with Flight Officer Sybil-Jean Burnett (front, centre) and staff at No. 1 WAAAF Depot, Victoria, August 1941
Group Officer Stevenson (centre) with honorary Air Commandant of the WAAAF, Lady (Zara) Gowrie (left), and the Deputy Director WAAAF, Squadron Officer Miller (right), Melbourne, November 1942
Stevenson (centre), flanked by the American First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt (left), and Air Commodore Frank Lukis (right), September 1943
