This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Helen Andrews. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 28 September 1878, United Kingdom
Died: 11 May 1971
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
Bland, Lilian Emily (1878–1971), pioneer aviator, was born 28 September 1878 in Kent, youngest child among one son and two daughters of John Humphrey Bland (1828–1919) of Fernagh, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, and Emily Charlotte Bland (née Madden) of Norfolk, granddaughter of Robert Wintringham Bland (1794–1880), dean of Belfast. She was brought up by her aunt, Sarah Maria Wintringham Smythe (d. 1918), widow of Gen. W. J. Smythe.
Versatile and adventurous, she was an excellent shot, a keen horsewoman, and one of the first women journalists; specialising in sports events, she wrote well, had a lively sense of humour, and earned admiration for her photographic skills. She also contributed articles on bird flight, which stimulated her interest in flight mechanics. Inspired by the pioneering cross-Channel flight (25 July 1909) by Louis Blériot (1872–1936), and receiving a postcard with the dimensions of his monoplane, she decided to build a scale model. After attending the first British aviation meeting in Blackpool (October 1909), she returned to the family estate, Tobercooran House, Carnmoney, Co. Antrim, full of ideas to design, build, and fly the first powered machine in Ireland. She constructed a biplane glider from bamboo, ash, and elm, wittily christened ‘Mayfly’ (her own preferred spelling); she claimed it flew at 30 mph (48.3 kph); ‘My only difficulty is to prevent her flying when I do not want her to’ (Flight, February 1910, 129).
She purchased a 20 hp two-stroke engine, but delay in receiving the fuel tank led her to devise a temporary fuel system consisting of a whiskey bottle and her aunt’s ear trumpet. In September 1910 she announced ‘I have flown . . . it was dead calm, so there was no wind to help her . . . I did not know I was off the ground!’ (Flight, 10 September 1910, 741). She rose 30 ft (9.14 m). She wrote several letters (1909–11) to Flight describing her experiences and discussing in detail various design features, and in a comprehensive article with photographs and diagrams, ‘The “Mayfly” – the first Irish biplane. And how she was built’ (Flight, no. 103 (17 December 1910), 1025–7), she described flying as the finest sport in the world.
Aspiring to start an aircraft company, she advertised in Flight, her improved ‘May-fly’ (the spelling used in advertisements), standard or racing, from £250 without engine, but with the promise by her anxious father of a Model T Ford motor car, she agreed to dispose of her plane. After purchasing her car in Dublin, she persuaded the delivery driver to let her to take the wheel, and quickly mastered the skill of driving. She then became Ford’s Belfast agent for selling cars (April 1911).
She married (October 1911) her cousin Charles Loftus Bland of Vancouver Island and emigrated to Canada; they had one daughter Patrick Lilian (1913–29), who died from tetanus. In 1935 Bland returned to England; at some point, she became a landscape gardener. She retired (1955) to Cornwall, where she painted, tended her garden, and enjoyed gambling. She died 11 May 1971.