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" a woman can have fun until she's 100 - the menopause is but a pause between men "

Jilly Cooper

HER NAME IS J...................

* J G Cran - Mrs

.....  FIRST woman to be appointed a magistrate in Salford, England

* J Hirst - Mrs

.....  FIRST woman compleater of all Munros when she made her last climb in 1947. In that year the 100th Munroist was added to the list and by 2004 the number had passed the 3,000 level

* J Lee Smith

..... in 1976 she was winner of the FIRST women's British Open

* Jacci Cooper

.....  FIRST female soccer development officer in Cheshire

 * Jackie

 * Jacqueline Auriol

 neé Jacqueline Marie-Therese Suzanne Douet

 born November 5th 1917 died 2000

..... France's FIRST woman test pilot, made the FIRST flight in a French Comet (1951). In 1953 she was among the FIRST to break the sound barrier and in 1971 was the FIRST woman to pilot Concorde (French). She took up flying at the age of 3O and in 1948 qualified as a tourist pilot and started stunt flying. The following year she was  severely injured in a plane crash but after numerous operations returned to flying. In 1950 she gained her licence as a military pilot and in 1951 broke the speed record set by Jacqueline Cochrane (see below) achieving a speed of 507 miles per hour. She was awarded the Legion d'Honneur and the American Harmon Trophy three times and ultimately held the women's' world speed record five times between 1951 and 1964. She was also awarded France's Medaille de L'aeronautique

*Jacqueline Berry

..... FIRST woman member of North Manchester's Rotary Club

* Jacqueline Odlum Cochran

 born 1910 died 1980

neé Bessie Lee Pitman

.....  American who was the FIRST woman to enter the Trans-American Bendix Race and on 18th May 1953 became the FIRST woman to break the sound barrier when flying in a North American F-86 Sabre jet and on the same day established a world's speed record for women of 652 mph. She was also the FIRST woman to pilot a bomber across the Atlantic and made the FIRST landing and take-off by a woman pilot from an aircraft carrier. In 1964 she logged a speed of 1429 mph, the fastest ever flown by a woman. Her first flying experience was in 1934 and for the next 30 years she tried mainly for speed records and held more than any other woman. She was awarded the Harmon Trophy six times, received numerous other awards and in 1971 became the only living woman depicted in the American Aviation Hall of Fame. During the Second World War she directed more than 1000 women in air transport which helped to free men for combat and has twice been named Woman of the Year

* Jacqueline Mitton

..... British astronomer who was the FIRST woman President of the Astronomical Society at Oxford University. She studied for her Ph.D at the Cambridge Observatories, wrote a textbook on O-Level astronomy and at the age of 31 had her book "Discovering Astronomy" published

* Jacqueline Mould

..... with her husband became the FIRST married couple to be ordained on the same day into the Church of Ireland in 1992

* Janet

* Janette Cooke

..... FIRST thalidomide victim to give birth

* Janette McCormick

..... FIRST female commander of Trafford Police - UK

* Janette Smith

..... made rugby league history when she became the FIRST woman to sit on the players bench at Wembley and FIRST woman to fill the role of physiotherapist there

* Janice Gurney

..... currently serving (2008) in the British Royal Navy she is the FIRST female Chief Petty Officer in the Gunnery Branch and also the FIRST female Chief of the Guard in HMS Drake based in Plymouth. Also the FIRST male to female woman of transsexual origin in the Royal Navy - wow

* Janice Hughes

..... FIRST woman director of the Economists Advisory group and at the age of 32 years she was also the youngest to take the post

* Janice Lloyd

..... FIRST woman chief executive at Spitalfields fruit, flower and vegetable market in its history spanning more than three centuries

*Janice Long

..... FIRST woman disc jockey on BBC Radio 1 to have a daily programme which she presented for three years until it was dropped in 1988 four weeks after the birth of her son. She decided to leave the BBC accusing them of discrimination against women

* Janice Meecham

 ..... the FIRST Wren sub-mariner

* Janice Rudkin

 ..... FIRST woman dog handler in the Greater Manchester Police in May 1976

* Janna Scantlebury

..... in 2003 she became the FIRST black woman to join Queen Elizabeth's mounted bodyguard. Her duties are near Buckingham Palace as part of the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery and their role also includes hauling the guns fired at royal salutes

* Jasmine Lydia Bligh

 born May 29th 1913 died July 21st 1991

..... FIRST woman announcer on BBC television in October 1936 when she introduced the FIRST regular television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace. She was one of two ( the other was Elizabeth Cowell) chosen from 1,000 candidates. She was actually  heard for the first time in May 1936 in Geraldo's orchestral programme, Romance in Rhythm, from St George's Hall. She also flew in an autogiro in the FIRST televised air test and in 1946 was the FIRST person to appear on screen at the restart of television broadcasting after the war with the words "Hello. Do you remember me"

* Jayne Hall

..... FIRST woman President of Stockport's ( Manchester) licensees when she was handed her chain of office at the annual meeting of the town's licensed victualler's association in 1996

* Jayne Lee

..... FIRST female Catholic chaplain at Salford's (UK) Hope Hospital - 2006

* Jayne Mansfield

 neé Vera Jane Palmer

 born April 19th 1932 died June 29th 1967

..... 50s cinema's walking-talking-bouncing embodiment of the breast fetish, the girl with the 40-18-36 measurements. She was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and married Paul Mansfield in 1950 at the age of 16. The following year she had her first child and began to study for stardom as well as winning beauty contests.  Her appearance at the premiere of the film Underwater in half a red bikini upstaged its star Jane Russell and led to her getting small parts in films. In 1956 she appeared in The Girl Can't Help It and in 1957 she was given the female lead in The Burglar and was then signed as an alternative to Marilyn Monroe by 20th Century Fox. Her second husband was Mickey Hargitay, a former Mr Universe and for a while they were one of the most famous couples in the world with their union of sex and muscles. Her career faded almost as fast as had begun but in 1963 she tried to revive her career by becoming the FIRST Hollywood star to do a nude scene when she appeared in Promises, Promises. Her last film was Single Room Unfurnished in 1967, about three stages in the life of a prostitute, and she died the same year in a car accident when travelling from Biloxi to New Orleans

* Jean

* Jeanne Pallier

.....  on 6th September 1912 she received French pilot's licence number 1012 and on that day was probably the FIRST woman pilot to fly over Paris in a Nieuport-Astra. She was 48 years old when she earned her licence which may have made her one of the oldest of the women pioneer pilots at the time. She has also been credited with the FIRST all-female flight when she carried Madame Duchange in her aircraft prior to January 1913  ( from Dave Lam)

* Jeanette Newton

..... in 1992 she became the FIRST woman dog handler to win the Marie Flint Trophy which was donated by Greater Manchester Police's FIRST woman chief superintendent. Jeanette is one if only four female dog handlers in the GMP force

* Jeanette Ridlon Piccard

..... FIRST woman in the stratosphere when she rose to 57,579 feet during an altitude research flight on

 23rd October 1934 from Dearborn, Michigan to Cadiz, Ohio  ( from Dave Lam)

* Jeanie Bell

..... in 1969 she was the FIRST black woman to be photographed for a Playboy magazine centrefold

* Jeanne Louise  Henriette Campan

 born 1752 died 1822

..... FIRST person to give girls a liberal education in France when she opened the FIRST secular school there. She also opened the school to students from modest and upper class families, an unusual precedent in class conscious France. Jeanne also published a number of important books on education

* Jeanne Martin Cisse

 born 1926

..... FIRST woman appointed to the United Nations as a delegate and FIRST woman to preside over the U.N Security Council. She began her career as a teacher in 1945 and went into politics in 1959 and was particularly active on behalf of women and worked on the National and Regional Committees of the National Assembly. From 1962 - 72 she was Secretary General of the Conference of African Women and until 1976 was a permanent representative to the United Nations. In 1975 she received the Lenin Peace Prize and a year later returned to Guinea to become Minister of Social Affairs

* Jeanne Demmessieux

 born 1921

..... FIRST woman invited to play in Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. At the age of 12 she became organist of the church at St Esprit, Paris and then trained at the Paris Conservatoire where she won major prizes from 1937 to 1940. In 1946 she gave her first public recital and then toured Europe, England and the U.S.A. She became organ professor at the conservatory at Liege and in 1962 was organist of the Madeleine. In 1967 she played at the inauguration of Liverpool Cathedral

* Jeanne Deroin

 born c1810 died 1894

..... FIRST woman to stand as candidate for election to the National Assembly in 1849. In her address she stated that 'an assembly composed entirely of men was incompetent to legislate for a mixed assembly'. She was one of the pioneers of feminism in France and was a self-educated working woman who became a schoolteacher and then a journalist. When she married in 1832 she refused to change her name

*  Jeanne Antoinette Poisson Le Normant d'Etoiles.. (Marquise de Pompadour) born 1721 died 1764

..... FIRST bourgeois mistress a French King ever had.  She was once told by a fortune teller that one day she would be the most important woman in France. It came true. For 11 years she ruled Versailles and her name became synonymous with flowers, perfume and the spending of countless francs to keep her beauty. She would not be ignored by the court and had an enormous influence over the King. The name 'Pompadour' came to be applied to the fashions and colours etc which were popular in her day. Through her, ministers rose and fell and new alliances were made, one being the alliance with Austria and Maria Theresa in the Seven Years War. She greatly wished to be remembered as a patron of the Arts and offered her patronage to writers and artists such as Voltaire, Diderot, Boucher and Montesquieu

* Jeanne Marjorie Holm

 born 1921

..... American who was founder and FIRST chairperson of Women in Government.  In 1973 she was the FIRST woman to become a Major General in the American Armed Forces , the highest rank achieved by any woman. She joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942 and by 1943 was a Second Lieutenant. By the end of the Second World War she was a Captain in charge of a women's training regiment. She was a Director of Women in the Air Force where she implemented great opportunities in careers, assignments and the abolition of discriminatory roles and was a strong supporter of women's rights and a founder member of the National Women's Political Caucus

* Jeanne Sauvé

 born 1922

 ..... FIRST woman Governor General in Canada

* Jeannette AItwegg

 born  1930

..... FIRST Olympic gold medal for figure-skating was won by her on 20th February 1952 in the Winter Olympics in Oslo. She was British figure skating champion four times between 1947 and 1950. In 1951 she won the European title and the Olympic Gold Medal at Oslo. She did not defend her title the following year but took a job as a house mother to refugee children in Switzerland and for this was later awarded the CBE

* Jeannette Pickering Rankin

 born June 11th 1880 died May 18th 1973

..... FIRST woman elected to the United States Congress on November 6th 1916 as Republican candidate for Montana where she was born, the eldest of seven children. She was largely educated by her school teacher mother and began her political career as a suffragette and in 1916 ran successfully as Republican candidate for Montana. In 1917 she took her seat at the House of Representatives but eventually lost it through her pacifism when she voted against entry into the First World War. This virtually ended her congressional career but she continued to work as a peacemaker. In 1940 she was again elected to congress and cast the only vote against entry into the Second World War, after Pearl Harbour, and again lost her seat.  In 1967 she led the Jeannette Rankin Brigade of 5,000 women in a march on Washington to protest against the American involvement in Vietnam . During her terms of office she promoted women's welfare and rights and was instrumental in the adoption of the FIRST bill granting married women independent citizenship

* Jennie Lee

 (Janet ) ....  Baroness Lee of Asheridge

born 1904 died 1988

..... FIRST working class girl to gain a law degree at Edinburgh University and the FIRST ever Minister for the Arts in Britain serving under various designations at the Ministry of Public Building and Works and the Department of Education and Science from 1964 to 1970. As Minister for the Arts she established government responsibility for encouraging all forms of the arts and implemented the creation of the Open University.  She also set in motion the building of the National Theatre

* Jennie McCallum

..... Australian who was the FIRST woman to win he British Open Championship for blind golfers in 1991, one of only six women to enter the competition

* Jennifer Adams

 born 1948

..... FIRST woman Superintendent of the Central Royal Parks when appointed in November 1983 and she became responsible for the garden behind Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the garden at Clarence House, 10 Downing Street, Kensington Palace, St James's Park and Queen's Park

* Jennifer Ainsworth

..... became the FIRST woman President of the Institute of Taxation. She was the FIRST woman elected to the Institutes ruling body and had been in the tax business for 17 years

* Jennifer Bray

..... FIRST woman to attend the Headmasters' Conference, usually a male only preserve. Jennifer was from the British School in Brussels. Following her came Gwen Randall of Framlingham College, Suffolk and in 1994 Helen Williams, principal-to-be of New College, Worcester

* Jennifer D'Abo

..... English entrepreneur extraordinaire who was the FIRST woman to launch a full-scale take-over bid for a public company when she bid for the textile group Selincourt

* Jennifer Murray

..... FIRST woman to make a helicopter flight around the world in 1997. With Quentin Smith this made them the FIRST Britons to circumnavigate the world by helicopter and the FIRST team to do so in a single engine piston machine. In 2000 she became the FIRST woman to complete a solo flight around the world in a helicopter

* Jenny

* Jesse Bald

neé Jesse Blanche Moss

born November 22nd 1928 died 1994

..... one of the FIRST women Chief Superintendents in London when given command of the City Road sub-division in East London after successfully completing the senior command course at the Police Staff College, Bramshill, in 1976. She was instrumental in winning for women the opportunity to undertake the responsibilities of a full policing role

* Jessica Couser

..... the FIRST girl to play in the Lancashire Schools Cricket Association age group finals - September 2007

* Jessica Crisp

..... Australian who was the FIRST woman to win the board sailing division of the IYRU World Youth Championship

* Jessica Godwin

..... FIRST woman in Britain to drive a Fordson tractor - TV's "Wartime Kitchen Garden - December 1993

* Jessica Lynch

..... FIRST female American P.O.W to be rescued in U.S. history

* Jessie Daniel Ames

..... tireless crusader for equality of both sexes and races and in 1919 became the FIRST president of the Texas League of Women Voters

* Jessie Redman Fauset

born 1882 died 1961

..... African/American who was the FIRST black woman member of the honorary literary society Phi Beta Kappa

* Jessie Kenney

..... FIRST woman to qualify as a radio officer. She was the younger sister of Annie Kenney and visited Russia, worked for the American Red Cross and from 1914-1918 toured America with Emmeline Pankhurst

* Jessie Kid

 .....  FIRST woman JP in Southland, New Zealand

* Jessie Miller

.....  FIRST woman to fly 14,000 miles, which was several times further than any woman ever had before when she joined aviator Bill Lancaster in a flight in a light plane on October 14th 1927 in an attempt to become the FIRST to fly England to Australia.  Unfortunately due to many mishaps they did not set the record but she got her pilot's licence and became a star. In 1929 she competed in the FIRST Women's Air Derby ( aka the Powder Puff Derby) with the greatest aviators of the day. She later set transcontinental speed records in both directions across the U.S

* Jessie Ranson

..... FIRST woman Vice-President of Whitburn Cricket Club in 1992 when she was given the unique honour by the club to mark her retirement and in recognition of her expertise in the kitchen

* Jessy Blackburn

 born 1894 died 1995

..... one of the FIRST women to fly a British monoplane before WW1

* Jeya Wilson

.....  sixth woman president of the Oxford Union Debating Society but the FIRST New Zealander commonwealth scholar and married woman to hold the position

* Jill Bettelley

..... FIRST living donor for a transplant patient with acute liver failure in Britain when she gave a quarter of her liver to her son Luke in a ground breaking operation at the King's College Hospital, South London, with only hours to spare

* Jill Browne

 born 1937 died 1991

..... star of the FIRST British television soap opera to catch on when she appeared as Nurse Carole Young in Emergency - Ward Ten. At its peak the show had an audience of 10 million and from 1957 went out twice a week for the next ten years

* Jill Craigie

 died 1999

..... Britain's FIRST female film director she was the wife of the former Labour leader Michael Foot

* Jill Dando

 born November 9th 1961 died 1999

..... in 1996 she was the FIRST person to be served a meal on the china which had been specially made for the 90th birthday of the Ritz Hotel in London

* Jill Knight

 born July 9th 1927

..... one of the FIRST English WRAF women to go over to France after the D-Day landings when she was assigned to ground control of aircraft. She later turned to politics and achieved four of her Private Members' Bills becoming Acts of Parliament - Design Copyright Act of 1968, Safety Packaging for Medicines 1974, in 1978 her third bill enabled women to pass on their nationality to their children born abroad. Up until this time only a man could claim this right. Her final bill was the infamous Clause 28 of the Local Government Act which sought to protect children from homosexual propaganda. In 1964 she received an MBE and was made a DBE in 1985

* Jill Limmack

..... FIRST woman in Britain to have contact lenses inserted inside her eyes in 1997 when pieces of 'cling film' were placed between the eye's natural lens and the pupil. Her operation was only the third of its type in Britain and was carried out at the Centre for Advanced Refractive Eye Surgery at the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle, Manchester

* Jill Mills

...... the world's FIRST strongest woman when she won the contest in 2002. She retained her title in 2003

* Jill Probert

.....  FIRST ever student at West Cheshire College to gain a distinction in advanced cookery examinations. After lecturing there she spent ten years teaching City and Guilds cookery to advanced diploma level at Chester College of Further Education

* Jill Rubery

..... FIRST woman Professor at UMIST, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and joined a small, but elite group of 5% of professors in the country which were female

* Jillian Wright

..... Australian who became the FIRST woman to go down the mines in Britain after 160 years of men only. She was a roof bolting engineer at Clipstone Colliery, Nottinghamshire and had previously worked at the Baal Bone mine in New South Wales, Australia

* Jo Arscott

..... in 1995 she was the FIRST black female creative director in Britain when appointed by Kobs and Draft advertising

* Jo Cook

 neé Gladys Irene Mapp

 born July 8th 1911 died 1997

..... a trailblazer in a traditionally male-dominated maritime world, in 1961 she became the FIRST woman minewatching skipper after working for her ticket since 1955 when the Royal Naval Minewatching Service was formed. She was always called Jo after taking part in a school performance of Little Women

* Jo Johnson

..... in 1993 she was the FIRST woman service receptionist in Great Britain and worked at the Crane Bank Garage in Chester

* Jo Richardson

 born August 23rd 1923 died 1994

..... Labour MP who was a long-standing vice-president of CND, the main organiser of the FIRST Aldermaston march

* Jo Salter

.....  Britain's FIRST woman combat pilot in 1994. She was not the RAF's first woman pilot (see Julie Gibson) but was the FIRST British woman to be trained for combat and became a combat-ready member of 617 Squadron, the famous "Dambusters of the Second World War. She was the FIRST woman to join the world of RAF operational combat flying, trained to pull tight turns against an attacker, to dive on a target with tons of explosives and to manoeuvre a £20 million aircraft 20 feet above the waves

* Jo Stafford

..... American singer who was the FIRST artist ever to be given a Diamond Award for selling 25,000,000 records. She was a very popular artist in her day and a firm favourite for 14 years. Her weekly Radio Luxembourg audience was 40,000,000

* Jo Sumner and Kerry Pannell

..... FIRST two women to pass a Royal Navy gunnery course in 1991 when they came top of their course at HMS Cambridge, near Plymouth, Devon

* Jo Wagerman

….. FIRST woman president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews - July 2000

* Joan

* Joanna Bunkham

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman jobber on the London Stock Exchange- 1981/82 when she began work with her colleagues from Pinchin Denny. Her new job entitled her to wear a yellow badge instead of the blue one of a trainee after she had been summoned before the Council of the Stock Exchange and answered questions on the code of dealing

* Joanna Coles

..... Fleet Street's FIRST parliamentary sketch writer when recruited by The Times newspaper in 2001

* Joanna Richardson

..... FIRST foreigner to win the Prix Goncourt de Ia Biographie, one of France's most distinguished literary prizes, in its 86-year history. The prize was established by Edmond and Jules Goncourt who were confirmed misogynists

* Joanne Mein

..... FIRST female RAAF Roulettes member and the FIRST woman to fly in a military precision flying team

* Joanne Shine

..... with Mick Drummond became the FIRST couple to tie the knot at the Mill Hotel in Kirkpatrick near Gretna Green, Scotland, which was one of the FIRST places to be granted a special licence under new laws in Scotland when the Scottish Marriage Act 2002 scrapped the restriction of civil marriages to register offices

* JoAnne Carner

 born 1939

..... American who was the FIRST woman to win the U>S Junior, Amateur and Open titles

* JoAnne Smoker

..... FIRST woman partner with the accountancy firm of Clark Whitehill Manchester, England.  She was formerly a senior manager, handling her own portfolio of smaller businesses

* Jocelyn Barrow

..... FIRST black member of the Board of Governors at the BBC when she filled the vacancy left by George Howard. There were three other women on the 12-strong board when she was appointed in 1983

* Jocelyn Bell Burnell - Dame

..... Englishwoman who was one of the FIRST to identify the source of pulsating radio signals but she was completely overlooked by the Nobel Foundation when the Nobel Prize was issued in 1974 to Anthony Hewish, Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University. She was his student and even though the fact that she had made the discovery in 1967 was  well documented, her name was not mentioned during the awards ceremony.  Pulsars eventually played an important part in discovering the age and origin of the universe. She was the FIRST female president of the Institute of Physics

* Jodi Breen

* Judith

*Julian of Norwich

 born c1342 died 1414

..... mystic who was the FIRST English woman of letters, author of Revelations of Divine Love. Apparently at this time Julian was not an uncommon name for girls. Little is known of her life except that she may have been the widow of Roger Haubayn who was killed in a duel. On his death she appears to have retired into a tiny cell attached to a church at Conisford, near Norwich

* Julie

* Juliette Hulme

..... the Army's FIRST female Chaplain when made an Army Captain on 18th February 2002

* Juliette Gordon Law

born 1860 died 17th January 1927

..... on March 12th 1912 she organized eighteen girls into the United State's FIRST troop of American Girl Guides in Savannah Georgia. She was FIRST president of the Girl Scouts and US delegate to the FIRST International Council of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides

* June Brae

 neé Bear

 born May 18th 1917 died 2000

..... leading ballerina who had the distinction of being the FIRST Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty at Sadlers Wells in 1939

* June Hancock

died 1997

..... FIRST person in Britain to win compensation for neighbourhood exposure to asbestos - in the 1950s she went to school near the Roberts asbestos factory in Armley, Yorkshire. The June Hancock charity donates what it can to mesothelioma research

* June Osborne

born 1953

..... Manchester-born Englishwoman who was one of the FIRST women to attend a male theological college. She was ordained a deacon in 1987, three years after she had moved to London. In 2004 she became the FIRST female dean at any of Britain's medieval cathedrals when installed at the historic Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire.  She became only the second female dean in the UK and the FIRST to be appointed by the Crown

* June Tull

.....  FIRST British girl to marry a German prisoner of war when she wed Heinz Fellbrich on August 14th 1947 in Southampton. The Government had just made it legal for German PoWs to marry British women and the wedding, the FIRST of its kind, made headlines around the world.  In 2007 the couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and have a family of six children, 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren

* June Whitney

.....  FIRST woman official physiotherapist for Cambridge University Rugby team in 1983/84

* Jung Chang

born 1952

..... FIRST person from the People's Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university when she obtained a PhD in Linguistics in 1982 from York University

* Junko Tabei

 born 1939

..... FIRST of four women who reached the top of Mount Everest in different expeditions. She reached the top with a male sherpa on 16th May 1975 after she was deputy leader of an all-woman Japanese expedition consisting of 15 women who had financed the climb from their own savings

* Justine Curran

..... in July 2003 she became Greater Manchester's (UK) FIRST woman police commander when appointed as commander of G.M.P's A division, or North Manchester. Her division stretched from the city centre and Openshaw in the south to Blackley in the north and she will oversee 750 officers from the city centre's Bootle Street Station