Maude Rose "Lores" Bonney, (20 November 1897 – 24 February 1994) was a South African-born Australian aviator. She was the first woman to fly solo from Australia to Britain. Early life and education Maude Rose Rubens was born on 20 November 1897 in Pretoria, South African Republic, the only child of Rosa Caroline (formerly Staal, née Haible) and German-born Norbert Albert Rubens, a clerk and later a merchant. She later adopted the name Dolores, shortened to "Lores" (pronounced Lor-ee) in preference to her given names. The family moved first to England in 1901, then to Australia in 1903. After education first in Melbourne, at the Star of the Sea Ladies’ College and the Cromarty Girls’ School, in Elsternwick, she then attended Victoria-Pensionat in Bad Homburg, Germany in 1911 to advance her music studies at a finishing school, becoming an accomplished pianist but suffering from stage fright. At this school she became fluent in French and German, before returning to Australia in 1913. In 1917, age 19, she met and married Harry Barrington Bonney, a leather goods manufacturer, whilst she was a member of the Red Cross working on the war effort during the World War I war effort. The couple moved to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and settled in Bowen Hills. Learning to fly In 1928 she met Bert Hinkler, Harry Barrington Bonney's first cousin once removed and a Queensland aviator who had set a solo England–Australia record in his Avro Avian biplane (now in the Queensland Museum, Brisbane). His exploits fired her imagination and her first flight in his Avian confirmed her determination to learn to fly. She took her first lessons (initially secretly whilst her husband played golf) with instructor Charles Matheson on 6 August 1930 and gained her private pilot's licence within the year. When she told her husband about her flying, he bought her a de Havilland DH.60 Gypsy Moth which she named My Little Ship. Bonney's first record breaking long-distance flight was in December 1931 when she decided to spend Christmas Day with her husband in Brisbane, and join her father in Wangaratta, Victoria, 1,173 km south, for lunch on Boxing Day. Leaving Brisbane at 4.30 a.m., she reached Wangaratta at 7.20 p.m., in time for dinner with her father. Record breaking flights Her record-breaking flights began and the press started to pay her attention. Later life The outbreak of the Second World War ended her