Amelia Ernhart memorial in Burry Port.

Burry Port memorial to commemorate Amelia Ernhatr's flight in 1928.

In a square at the centre of Burry Port is this grade II listed memorial, erected to commemorate the day that Amelia Ernhart landed here in June 1928, after her record-breaking, non stop  flight across the Atlantic. The memorial is in its own iron-fenced flower garden and the top is adorned with an iron-work portrayal the seaplane "Friendship" that had brought her safely across.

Amelia was already a world-wide celebrity and very soon the world's press descended on Burry Port to cover the story. For one advantageous moment in time, Burry Port was on the world stage and there were many around the town who wanted that moment to last for as long as possible. Even today the story is still part of Burry Port's folk law, and in 2003 to mark the 75th anniversary of Amelia's triumph, an engraved commemorative stone was erected in the newly-restored harbour area.

Commemorative plaque near Burry Port harbour.

With all the publicity and the memorials you could be forgiven for believing that Amelia Ernhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and landed her plane here in 1928. She was however, only a passenger on the plane, or perhaps cabin crew serving drinks and selling the duty-free, or even to use her own description— “like a sack of potatoes.” The pilot was Wilmur Stultz and co-pilot was Louis Gordon and between them they did all the flying. But Burry Port and the press weren't interested in their exploits, it was Amelia who was the star of the show. Perhaps an example of that old adage: Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

We can take nothing away from Amelia Ernhart however, as she was an adventurer and a heroine in the truest sense of the word. A few years later she did become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic but she landed in Ireland. She died in 1937 in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.