Beatrice (Tilly) Shilling was born in Waterlooville, Hampshire, England, on March 8, 1909. At age 14, she bought herself a motorcycle and began working on it. Knowing she wanted to become an engineer, she apprenticed for an electrical engineering company after high school. 

 

She had decided that she wanted to be an engineer – an extremely unusual occupation for a young woman at that time – and on leaving school in 1926 she worked as an apprentice in an electrical engineering company run by Margaret Partridge. Margaret was a founder member of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and she was eager to encourage more women into engineering roles. Beatrice showed great promise as an electrical engineer and Margaret persuaded her to apply to study at Manchester’s Victoria University. WES also helped Beatrice get her maths knowledge up to the required standard and gave her an interest-free loan for her tuition fees.

Beatrice was one of only two women engineering undergraduates at the University and her student record card referred to her as Mr. Beatrice Shilling! She graduated with an honours degree in Electrical Engineering in 1932 and then studied for another year to gain a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering.  She had made such an impression on the staff when studying for her Master’s that she was taken on as a research assistant for G F Mucklow’s work on single cylinder, supercharged engines.

Tilly Shilling was born in Waterlooville in 1909 and moved to Surrey with her family in 1914. After leaving school she became an apprentice electrical engineer with Margaret Partridge as her employer. Partridge, herself forward thinking for the time, and involved with the Women’s Engineering Society encouraged Shilling to take a degree in Electrical Engineering at Manchester University. She graduated in 1932, and then went on to complete an MSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1933. Shilling initially worked as a research assistant to Dr Mucklow who was investigating the behaviour of supercharged single cylinder engines.