She held many appointments within the Guide Association and was generous in giving practical help, never asking anyone to do anything which she hadn’t already trained herself in; she had a strong sense of loyalty, humour and charm of manner and enjoyed the friendship and company of young people.
Scouting was a childhood favourite of Davies-Cooke’s and her interests ran on boys’ lines – carpentry, outdoor games, stalking, tracking and fire-lighting. Kathleen Mabel Davies-Cooke, administrator; born London 5 January 1903; Deputy Chief Commissioner for England, Girl Guide Association 1945-48; Chairman of the Executive, Guide Association 1948-51; Vice-Chairman, 13th World Conference of Guides 1950; President, Trefoil Guild 1954-63; married Ralph Davies-Cooke (died 1974: two sons, one daughter); died Denbigh, Clwyd 26 June 1994. However, on one memorable flight for Hunting Clan in a Britannia in the 1950s Greensted had 12 engine failures en route from Singapore to Karachi That is, all four engines failed three times owing to icing. His friends included aviation heroes such as Douglas Bader, Jim Mollison, Jeffrey Quill, Dickie Rymer, OP Jones and, most importantly, Eugene Esmond, whom Greensted delivered back to his squadron on the night before Esmond was killed in a Swordfish while attacking the German pocket battleships the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst during their dash up the English Channel.The post-war period should have seen the end of seat-of-the-pants flying. He subsequently went on to be Chief Pilot at Hunting Clan, but left after the company’s acquisition by British United.Greensted eventually set up his own air transport consultancy, a with Saudi Arabian Airlines as a leading client.

There he flew the greatest number of civilian missions on the Berlin Airlift, for which he was awarded the King’s Commendation His work at Rotol earned him an MBE He had mixed views about this. This work eventually culminated in reversible-pitch propellers for Fleet Air Arm dive-bombers, and in contra-props for Griffon-engined Spitfires.In 1942 Greensted’s involvement with airscrew development was temporarily interrupted by work with Sir Alan Cobham on air-to-air refuelling. In the same year he experimented with Wellingtons towing Hurricanes – abandoned as being beyond the capabilities of most front-line pilots – and engine-detonation testing with Halifaxes over Khartoum.While still with Rotol, Greensted worked from 1944 with Martin-Baker on the MB5 fighter, which might have replaced the Spitfire had not the prototype’s engine failed spectacularly while he was demonstrating the aeroplane to Churchill and the RAF’s senior Fighter Command officers at Farnborough.At the same time Greensted worked with Sir James Martin on the development of the ejector seat, leading to the first live firing of a seat from the turret of a Defiant nightfighter in 1944. Test duties included flying Gloster Gauntlets in foul weather to test for airscrew delaminations, and, critically, the development of variable pitch airscrews for Rotol. He went solo after seven hours in an Avro Cadet and, after qualifying, spent time in South Africa and Rhodesia on De Havilland aircraft as an instructor before returning to England to prepare pilots for the war withHitler.Greensted joined Rotol as Chief Test Pilot, at Staverton, Gloucester, in 1939, being temporarily seconded to Gloster Aircraft in 1940.

There Bryan excelled in sport, particularly rugby, hockey, squash and golf. The Herne Bay Golf Club invited him to be its assistant professional.He was also an excellent draughtsman, winning several prizes for art at Rugby. One of his strong graphic designs was used by the Great Western Railway for a poster. In 1933 he went straight from school to Air Service Training, at Hamble. He had a big sense of fun and a well-founded confidence in his own physical abilities.