Beryl Markham: The First Female Pilot To Make A Non-Stop East-West Transatlantic Flight (2024)

In 1936 English-born Kenyan aviator Beryl Markham became not only the first female but the first aviator to fly solo westward across the Atlantic to the United States from Europe. She documented her achievement in a memoir titled "West with the Night."

Born to horse trainer Charles Baldwin Clutterbuck and mother Clara Agnes Alexander in Rutland, England, on October 26, 1902, Beryl moved with her family to Kenya when she was four years old. While living in East Africa on her family's farm, Beryl followed in her father's footsteps, establishing herself as a horse trainer.

The live and loves of Beverly Markham

Markham was generally considered to go against societal norms and expectations. She was married three times while also having numerous affairs. She took the surname Markham from her second husband, Mansfield Markham, a wealthy industrialist, and mine owner. In 1929, she also had a very public affair with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the son of George V.

Beryl Markham learned to fly in aDH.60 Moth. Photo: TSLR via Wikimedia Commons.

After befriending Danish writer Karen Blixen (who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen), Markham was inspired by Tom Campbell Black, an RAF First World War pilot, and learned to fly a plane. Learning to fly by instinct and intelligence, her first plane was a De Havilland DH.60 Gypsy Moth, a famous two-seat biplane. She later became a bush pilot and worked spotting wild animals for hunting safaris.

Deadly challenge accepted

Obviously, an adventurer by nature, when Beryl learned that no one had ever made a solo crossing westward from Europe to America, she was eager to take up the challenge. Because the wind blows west to east, it is much more difficult to fly from Europe to America than from America to Europe, as many aviators found out during their fatal attempts.

Beryl Markham used a Percival Vega Gull for the Atlantic crossing. Photo: Getty Images.

Eager to claim the record, Beryl purchased a four-seat Percival Vega Gull monoplane. Constructed of wood and fabric, the Vega Gull was fitted with a de Havilland Gipsy Six air-cooled inline engine.

Crossing the Atlantic had been done several times first by John Alcock and Arthur Brown in 1919 and then solo by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic in 1932 when she flew from Newfoundland to Ireland. However, all these flights were west to east, flying with the wind and not into it.

Beryl Markham was in the air for 20 hours. Image: GCmaps

On September 16, 1936, Beryl took off from Abingdon Airfield in Oxfordshire and was safely over the Atlantic when her plane, the "Messenger," suffered problems following 20 hours in the air. Icing in the aircraft fuel tanks vents caused fuel starvation to the engine forcing Beryl to crash-land at Baleine Cove on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Despite not making it to New York as she intended, Beryl had crossed the Atlantic east to west, becoming the first aviator ever to do so.

Earnest Hemingway loved her book

Beryl wrote a book about her record-breaking flight called "West with the Night," although it failed to sell in any quantity. After living in the United States for several years, Beryl moved back to Kenya in 1952 and resumed training horses.

Earnest Hemingway loved her book. Photo:Ole Fossgård via NDLA

In 1982 while reading a collection of Ernest Hemingway's letters California restaurateur George Gutekunst came across one which read:

"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? ...She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant, and we might even say a high-grade bitch, can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book."

After reading the book for himself, Gutekunst persuaded a California publisher, North Point Press, to re-issue the book. This time the book was well received and appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, allowing Beryl enough income to finish her life in relative comfort before passing away in Nairobi on August 3, 1986.