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Story of Nottingham woman who helped guide allied aircraft during World War Two highlighted in new exhibition

A Nottingham-born woman who helped the RAF guide aircraft on vital World War Two missions has been honoured in a major new exhibition.

Margaret Hourigan was a miner’s daughter who grew up in Nottingham during the 1930s, and volunteered for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1940. She became a plotter with fighter command – helping to guide aircraft using radar and maps to complete missions and track Nazi aircraft.

She was promoted to Sergeant while on transfer to Bomber Command, in Lincolnshire, and also served at both RAF Waddington and RAF Skellingthorpe. At the end of the war she moved to Australia with her husband. She passed away last year at the age of 101.

On Friday (March 14) Margaret was one of ten women commemorated at the Lincolnshire centre with an eight foot-steel silhouette and placard to tell their stories and represent the important and underreported role of women during World War Two.

Two of Margaret’s children were in attendance, having flown in from Australia to be a part of the unveiling.

Upon seeing the steel silhouette of his mother, her son David Hourigan said: “We recognised her straight away. It was quite haunting to see her standing there.

“I’m not sure that people would cope in the same way as this generation of women did, and that’s why I like the statues being so high, because I think these women were larger than life.”

 

Elizabeth Hourigan, Margaret’s youngest daughter, said : “It’s a huge honour and a privilege for us to be here, the recognition is certainly gives us a greater depth to understand what she did, how she contributed and even for the other ladies that are here today, what part they played in the war up until now was possibly quite silent in the background.”

Nicky van der Drift OBE, chief executive of the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) said: “What we wanted to do was make sure that the women’s contribution to World War two, which was known about and talked about.”

“They were the backbone of Britain, not only militarily, but they went into factories doing jobs that nobody thought that women could do.

“The hardest bit was selecting ten stories to tell, the women stories in this are a powerful part. But more importantly they are an inspiration to other women and young girls.”