chally

Whoydensday: Ace (Guest Post from Chally)

I don’t believe you’ve met my young friend Ace, an expert in calorification, incineration, carbonization, and inflammation.
-The Doctor, The Happiness Patrol

Dorothy McShane of Perivale, UK, better known as Ace, was the Doctor’s companion in Doctor Who from 1987 until the show’s cancellation in 1989. She was young. She was independent. She was tough. She was smart. She was a glorious feminist character.

Friday Hoyden: Nancy Bird Walton, by Guest Hoyden Chally

Nancy Bird Walton, AO, OBE, DStJ, Dame of the Knights of Malta, was a legendary pilot and about as hoydenish as it gets. At age 19, she became the first Australian female pilot to receive her commercial license. She went on to be instrumental in running early outback air ambulance services in New
South Wales and commandant of the Women’s Air Training Corps during WWII as well as founder and long-time president of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association. I’m tearing up as I tell you that she died on Tuesday afternoon in her home in Mosman, northern Sydney.