A FERNDOWN woman who won fame as Britain's first air hostess in the 1930s and then went on to teach hundreds of people in Dorset how to drive has died at the age of 91.

Daphne Watson was working as a secretary for airline Air Dispatch in 1936 when its owner, the well-known flyer Mary Bruce, asked her to take to the air.

Mrs Watson's nephew, Michael Kearley, said: "KLM and Swiss Air had lady stewards while everyone else was using men and they were much more popular.

"Mary Bruce cottoned on to this idea and put in an advert along the lines of attractive young ladies sought' to be air hostesses. All these dolly birds turned up but as soon as they got up in the air they were as sick as dogs. Daphne was her secretary and she looked at her and said you're pretty and you can fly' and that was it."

Mrs Watson, who was originally from London, took on the job and spent six months working as a hostess on the airline's Paris run. She trained others to do the job before she returned to her original role.

About the same time she married her first husband, Keith Vickers, and continued working for Air Dispatch until the 1950s.

She and Mr Vickers later divorced and she married driving instructor Alan Watson in about 1960 and the pair moved to Bournemouth, where they set up the Principal School of Motoring.

For many years the couple lived in a flat behind their office at Old Christchurch Road, before moving to Ferndown in 1973. They retired in 1989, just a few years before Mr Watson died.

The funeral service for Mrs Watson will be held at Bournemouth Crematorium on Thursday at 2.15pm.