![A woman wearing RAF uniform standing in a room with blue carpets and three large portraits hung on the hall behind.](https://firstwomen.brightonmuseums.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AVMWest-16-of-24-f1.jpg)
First Woman to be made Air Vice-Marshal within the RAF
September 2016, Officers Mess, RAF High Wycombe
b.1961, Cumbria
In 2013, Senior RAF Officer Air Vice-Marshal Elaine West became the most senior female officer in the British Armed Forces. At the age of 53, she was awarded a non-honorary Air Vice Marshal becoming the first woman ever to hold two-star rank in nearly 100 years since the RAF formed in 1918. To date, around 14% of the RAF are women.