Early Life
Rita Baines was born on 13th November 1921 to Charles and Ethel Baines at Trentham. Charles managed the colour manufacturing business – Messrs C J Baines and Co. Ltd. Rita’s sibling Charles Jnr arrived in 1925. Rita Baines was educated at Felixstowe Ladies College and a finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland. From 1939 to 1942, Rita worked for the Central Clearing House in Trentham Ballroom. In 1942 Rita applied to work in the Rootes factory at Blythe Bridge. The work involved final flight inspections of Blenheim and Beaufighter aircrafts, which were constructed on-site before being delivered to the RAF.
ATA pilot
In 1943 Rita applied to join the Air Transport Auxiliary [ATA] for flying training. She was accepted and started training in December. In January 1944 Rita flew her first plane, a Magister. She made her first solo flight after only 14 hours of tuition and later progressed to Procters. In September 1944 Rita flew her first Spitfire. By October 1944 she was a fully-fledged pilot. Rita spent 448 hours flying 19 different types of aircraft, including 54 Spitfires. In November 1945, the ATA was disbanded. The ATA was the first organization in the UK to gain equal pay for both men and women.
Life after flying
Rita joined the British and South American Airways as an air hostess. She married the pilot David Colby in 1946. After the untimely death of her husband in early 1948, Rita moved back to Trentham with her baby daughter. She married Chris Johnson in 1949, who later became the director of Wedgewood. She had two more children in 1951 and 1953. In 1981 she married her distant cousin, Hugh Tetlow, who worked at GCHQ as a Russian Linguist
Rita became involved in many charities. In 1971 she set up the Beth Johnson Foundation and, in 1975, the Beth Johnson Housing Association. The Housing Association built social housing at 17 locations. Rita was the Chair of both BJF and BJHA, as well as, the Stamer House Nursing Home and the Staffordshire Old People’s Welfare Committee. She was also the WRVS hospital welfare organizer for Staffordshire. All this hard work was recognized in 1979 with the award of an MBE.
At Rita’s funeral in 2007, her daughter Caroline said it the best “We shall remember her for her determination as well as her beauty, her intelligence, and that lovely laugh that could light up a room”.
