THE incredible true story of an Ayrshire heiress, actress, jockey and doomed aviator has been brought to life in a new novel set to be released next week.
Elsie Mackay, whose father owned Glenapp Castle near Ballantrae, forged a series of remarkable careers before her untimely death at the age 34 in 1928 as she attempted to become the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic.
The daughter of James Lyle Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, Elsie was born in India in 1893, where her father was a businessman and colonial administrator. He would later became chairman of the shipping company P&O.
After a career in Holywood, Elsie worked as an interior designer for her father's cruise ships, became England's first female jockey and then set out to become an aviation pioneer.
Also featuring characters from her 2024 work The Paris Peacemakers, the new work contrasts Elsie's socialite lifestyle with those working in the Clyde yards building ships for her father's cruise line.
Historian Flora, who worked for the National Museum of Scotland before forging a career as an author, said: "Elsie is not widely known - but I found out about her extraordinary life through a family connection.
"My grandparents married in 1926 and they went to live in Ballantrae, where my father was the doctor.
"He was the doctor for the Mackay family at Glenapp and they were a similar age to Elsie.
"As her father was Lord Inchcape, chairman of P&O, he would have stopped the flight."
Elsie first hit fame after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham - for which she was disinherited - and launched a career on stage and screen.
Between 1919 and 1920 she starred in seven Holywood movies under the stage name Poppy Wyndham before her marriage was annulled and she returned to the family.
But Elsie's taste for adventure had only just been awakened. She set out to become one of the first female jockeys, under the Wyndham alias, and in her short career, won eight races.
She then worked for a time at the Glasgow shipyards as an interior designer for her father's company. She designed the interiors for four of the line's cruise ships
She said: "I paid a visit to the Maritime Museum in Irvine, where the engineering shed from the shipyard has been transported.
"I also visited Glenapp Castle, which of course is now a hotel, as part of my research. We booked in for an afternoon tea and it was a brilliant experience being in what was once Elsie's home.
"I looked out at Ailsa Craig and I wondered if Elsie stood here and wondered about flying west."
Her design work aside, Elsie still had other ambitions. An Atlantic crossing.
She took up flying in 1923, gaining her pilot's licence at the De Havilland Flying School. She became a familiar sight in the skies over South Ayrshire flying her Avro biplane.
She was also a familiar sight on the roads around Ballantrae where she would drive her Rolls Royce at high speeds.
Elsie bought a Stinston Detroiter plane, attempting a few dangerous stunts with her co pilot - including an 'outside loop' where her safety-strap broke. She clung to bracing wires as her body swung outside the plane.
She finally decided to make her Transatlantic bid in March 1928, while her father was in Egypt.
Elsie and her co-pilot Captain Walter Hinchcliff took off from RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire. Five hours later, the plane was spotted flying over Cork in Ireland. Then silence...
Flora revealed: "She was never seen again. Some wreckage from the plane did wash up on the Irish coast. No one knows what actually happened."
Elsie is remembered with a stained glass window in Glenapp Church.
The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay is Flora's third novel.
Returning characters from her previous novel, Stella and Corren see their hopes and dreams intertwine with Elsie’s remarkable story.
The book will be available in both hardback and Kindle format next week.
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