Rosamund Everard-Steenkamp
Rosamund Everard-Steenkamp (born 1907 in Bonnefoi, near Carolina, Transvaal, South Africa) was an aviator and artist. She was the daughter of Charles Joseph Everard and Bertha, and her family later moved to Moedig. An accomplished artist trained by her mother, she also spent time in artistic circles in Paris, and her work was shown at the South African National Gallery.
Everard-Steenkamp learned to fly in the 1930s and regularly toured Europe in her own aircraft. During World War II she worked as a flying instructor in South Africa and later ran an air shuttle between South Africa and Cairo. She married Lieutenant H N F Steenkamp of the South African Air Force; he died on duty in 1942.
In 1944 she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and flew about 3,500 hours in the United Kingdom, attaining the rank of First Officer. She was among the early women to fly a jet airplane, the Gloster Meteor.
She died in an airplane accident in England in March 1946 while ferrying a Spitfire XIV. The crash occurred near Button Oak, Shropshire, after aerobatics near Bewdley, Worcestershire. She is buried in All Saints' Cemetery, Maidenhead, Berkshire.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:36 (CET).