Archive of The Hon. Mary Diana Eve Chetwynd (1908-1997)

A SMALL PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE OF THE HON. MARY DIANA EVE CHETWYND (1908-1997). Comprising Chetwynd's personal photograph album chronicling her 1928-1929 journey from Southampton to Bombay, her passport, her personal autograph album (1924-1929), and an original copy of the Illustrated London News, 20 April 1929 detailing her return journey as the first woman to fly from India to England. The album contains approx. 182 silver prints, most 90 x 150mm(or the reverse), mounted to card 4-5 prints per page, recto and verso, each with manuscript captions and dates in Chetwynd's hand describing the journey, housed in an oblong folio measuring 280 x 380mm (one loose page). The images follow the journey chronologically from Southampton on the SS Empress of france (CPR Line) to Port Said, Aden, the Red Sea, Bombay, Delhi, Qila, Calcutta, Barrackpore onboard the SY Lady Tagore, Okla, Agra and the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, Benares, Sarnath, Ramnagar. The autograph album (measuring 220 x 180mm) containing signatures (Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi, Gilbert Clayton, Italo Balbo and others), a small number of silver prints, and sketches from Chetwynd's family, friends and acquaintances between 1924-1929. The passport included in this lot was the one Chetwynd used on the journey, and contains the corresponding entry and exit stamps.

The Hon. Mary Diana Eve Chetwynd (1908-1997) was the daughter of Godfrey John Boyle Chetwynd, 8th Viscount Chetwynd, a senior director of Imperial Airways. Eve, as she was known, accompanied her father on the first India - to - England Air Mail flight, 7 April 1929, after completing the journey detailed in the photograph album above. The article included in this lot, 'To India and Back by Air Mail - The Log of the Only Passenger Who Flew Both Ways' (written by Air Vice-Marshal Sir Vyell Vyvan, KCB, DSO), charts the journey both there and back; a photograph of Miss Chetwynd accompying the article reads, "The First Woman to Fly from India to England: The Hon. Eve Chetwynd (Left), with Lady Maude Hoare (the first woman to fly from England to India) at Croydon just after the arrival of the first India - to - England Air Mail. Miss Chetwynd, who had never flown before, accompanied her father, Lord Chetwynd, in the first India - to - England Air Mail, which reached Croydon on April 14. Lady Maude Hoare was there to welcome her husband, Sir Samuel Hoare, who had joined the other passengers in Egypt. She flew to India with hin on a previous occasion, before the inauguration of the air mail service."