Heartfelt tributes have started to flood in after a Royal Air Force(RAF) heroine, who helped defeat the Nazis, died at 102-years-old. The “inspirational” Kate Orchard, who lived in Camborne, Cornwall, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Corps in India in 1942, where she worked alongside the RAF, as well as the Indian Air Force, on 24-hour watches. She plotted aircraft targets and sent signals to the air warning systems.
Her bravery and “dynamic personality” shone through until her last moments as, at 99 years old, she took to the skies in a glider to raise money for Help for Heroes. In the same year, Kate was selling poppies at a local supermarket in Camborne, insisting that she would do it “any time”.
On Friday, her son Bentley confirmed that Kate had died at Beeches Care Home in Hayle.
“Through her dynamic personality, she touched so many people in so many different ways,” he said. “She was exceptional and an inspiration to the very end.”
A spokesperson for the Veterans Charity thanked Kate for her years of service. “On behalf of The Veterans Charity, we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of WW2 Royal Air Force veteran Kate Orchard, who passed away peacefully at the age of 102,” they said.
“Rest in peace Kate, duty more than done. Thank you for your service.”
Kate was born into a large Anglo-Indian family with 13 siblings, her father serving as a chief telegraph inspector for the Indian railways.
At 20, Kate and two of her sisters volunteered at the Women’s Auxiliary Corps which was created in India in 1941 to recruit women to help with the war.
By 1942, Kate was working at the Air Defence Centre in the Number 5 Filter Room, where she served alongside both the RAF and the Indian Air Force. Her role as a plotter/teller involved 24-hour shifts, during which she tracked aircraft targets and communicated with air warning systems.
Kate eventually rose to the rank of Warrant Officer First Class and became a trainer for new plotters. During the war, she met her future husband, Bill, who was stationed in India with the Royal Artillery before being sent to Burma.
The couple married in 1944, and after the end of the war, they moved to Bill’s family home in Cornwall in 1946, marking Kate’s first visit to what she would come to know as ‘the homeland.’
