Roberta Cowell

Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell (8 April 1918^[1] – 11 October 2011) was a British racing driver and World War II fighter pilot. She was born in Croydon, Surrey. She was also the first known British transsexual woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery.^[2]

She died on 11 October 2011 in Hampton, London. Her funeral was attended by only six people and (on her instructions) was unpublicised - her death was not publicly reported until two years later, when a profile of her was printed in The Independent newspaper in October 2013.^[2]