May Bradford Shepherd

May Gertrude Shepherd (née Bradford), (1897 - 24 January 1937) was an Australian aviator and the first woman in Australia to hold first class pilot's 'A', 'B' and 'C' licences concurrently, in addition to a 'D' electrical ground engineers' certificate.

[4][5][6][7][8][9] May Bradford was an accomplished horse rider, competing in shows and being awarded the fastest time ever recordered by a man or woman for hunt riding on the Brisbane Showground in 1920.

[13] They had two sons, Francis 'Frank' Roy (15 August 1921) and Henry 'Harry' James (11 November 1923), before her husband's death from injuries sustained some years earlier at Galipolli in World War I.

[15][16] Bradford received flying lessons from Captain Harold Livingstone Fraser at Connor Park before moving to Brisbane to continue training at the Queensland Aero Club.

She escaped practically unhurt but was suffering from the effects of shock [21] In 1936, she was one of the five female pilots in the Adelaide Centenary Air Race along with Nancy Bird, Lores Bonney, Freda Thompson and Ivy May Pearce.