Everyone acknowledged that it was an amazing feat, and displayed her real skill in navigation . There were no GPS systems in those days, all Jean had was a map, compass and watch to guide her. However it had been a wearing experience on her, and during her tour of New Zealand, Jean suffered a nervous breakdown.
After spending some time recuperating at Franz Joseph, Jean and her mother went to Sydney in February 1937 to meet up with Beverley Shepherd her fiancee who was also a pilot. But tragedy was still all around Jean and the day she arrived Shepherd was killed in an airplane accident. Shattered by grief the women retreated and it was not until October of that year that Ellen could pursuade her daughter to fly again.
But when Jean returned it was in spectacular style. She flew from Australia to England in 5 days 18 hours,. It was a new solo record for any pilot either woman or man, and Jean became first person to hold simultaneously England–Australia solo records in both directions.
It was however to be her last long distance flight. The sun had begun to set on Jean’s fame. Even in 1938 when she published her second book, My life, there was little interest, and it was savaged by the critics.
War was in the air once again, and Jean was involved in fundraising campaigns for the war effort, and was even commissioned into active service- but she never flew again. It was apparently during this time that Jean fell in love again with another RAF pilot, but this was as tragic as her other love affairs. He was killed in action.
With the end of the war, Jean and Ellen still lived together in a number of places around the world, until Ellen was forced to finally abandon her daughter. Jean’s mother died in 1965 at the respectable age of eighty nine at San Marcos, Tenerife
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