Iris McCallum
I remember back in 1960 being in Nairobi West (where Wilson Airport is situated) standing with my mother watching a train pass by, filled with refugees from the Belgian Congo. The train was full, with many of the people dressed in pyjamas, or whatever they could find to wear in their haste to leave.
The newspapers were full of horrific stories of what people had endured and how many were killed. Everyone was affected from missionary nuns, to families and businesses.
The lucky ones who had managed to escape were on that train. Unbeknown to me at the time, there were people who had been airlifted out by a young woman aviator called June Wright.
June flew multiple missions into the Congo in a Piper Commanche until the Aketi airstrip that she used was overrun by the rebels. Aketi airstrip is in the Bas-Uele Province in the north of the Congo. It is very difficult to convey or comprehend how vicious and dangerous these times were in the early days of the Congo revolt against the Belgian colonial powers.
In the week she had spent evacuating the refugees, she had flown approximately 6000 miles in very difficult weather and over the almost impenetrable Congo equatorial forest.
For her courage and dedication, she was awarded the Commendation for Valuable Service In The Air by Queen Elizabeth II.
June was also the first woman in Africa to be awarded the Amelia Earhart Medal for her courage and rescue missions in the Congo. The Belgians also recognised June’s courage and she was given a plaque in the shape of a coin with her name inscribed and with great simplicity “La Belgique reconnaissance”.
June was born in Nakuru Kenya on 21 June 1929 to a mother who was also a pilot. June was an all-rounder. After completing her education at Limuru Girls’ School, she took a two-year agricultural course in the UK. Having obtained her Diploma she returned to Kenya in 1949. She stayed on the family farm, learning to be a farmer.
Her stepmother, Mary Wright had a half share in a Tiger Moth, so June learnt to fly. She then took a job at the Kabete Veterinary Laboratory where she remained for two years. The first aeroplane she bought was a Miles Magister. She joined the Aero Club of East Africa where she got her A Licence and entered various flying competitions, in which she excelled.
In the early 1950’s June was with a number of Kenya legends. Notably: Mike Richmond, Dougy Bird, Punch Beacroft, A. Burston, and A. Hanford-Rice, who flew to Bulawayo in the then Southern Rhodesia to collect six Tiger Moths, bought by the Government of Kenya, for the Aero Club to use for training.
The two-thousand-mile flight back to Nairobi in the Tigers took six days and involved landing at some of the worst airstrips in East Africa. In contrast, all the airstrips in Southern and Northern Rhodesia were immaculate with someone coming out to meet them at each airfield to ensure all was in order. From Bulawayo, night stops were in Livingstone, Lusaka, Mpaka and Iringa. The planes had to refuel at other bush airstrips along the route.
June flew so many famous people, including the renowned hunter and author Robert “Bob” Ruark.
She nurtured a sweet superstition. In Mombasa, at the age of four, she was given a bracelet by an Arab Trader. This she always carried it with her.
June was also a well respected rally driver. She entered the Coronation Safari five times with her stepmother Mary Wright, and finished twice. Considered in its time the toughest rally in the world, it was always held over Easter weekend at the peak of the rainy season.
Many years later, being a busy fully-fledged commercial pilot, I got to meet and know June Wright Sutherland. June was still flying commercially and would do many charters for us at Air Kenya as a freelance.
June was an easy-going woman, with a great natural warmth. She was completely open and had a lovely sense of humour.
I recall June, Heather Stewart and myself watching as jerry cans were being filled with Avgas. June was calmly looking on whilst puffing on her cigarette. “Did you know that you can put a cigarette out in avgas with no problem?” she said.
I think Heather and I looked at her askance and rather alarmed as she demonstrated by drowning her cigarette in avgas. I have never forgotten it.
“It’s the fumes you need to be worried about she said.” Heather Stewart and I often used to talk about June and remember how she would always encourage us to do anything. She would have loved to have been with us in Somalia and Sudan.
June retired to South Africa and passed away on 22 February 2021 at the tender age of 91. I am sure that she is back at the controls, flying all the different aircraft she can.