Mary Handley-Page

Mary in a Sunbeam Rapier

Mary Handley-Page was one of a group of British female drivers who were part of works teams for British manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Her family was involved in engineering; her father, Frederick Handley-Page, gave his name to a series of aircraft, and his company built the famous Halifax Bomber. Mary was his youngest daughter, born in 1923 and originally christened Patricia.

As a girl and young woman, she rode horses and hunted to hounds. Equestrianism has proved to be a surprisingly good training for rally drivers, the best example being Pat Moss. When Mary was just eight, she was awarded a prize in the Stanmore Gymkhana for "Trotting". The cup was awarded by Amy Johnson, the pilot. She was at the height of her fame and also a rally driver herself.

Her first major appearance seems to have been the 1956 RAC Rally, driving a Rover. Her co-driver was Jo Ashfield. They were second in the Ladies’ standings. The pair rallied together again on the Tulip Rally, sitting in the opposite seats. The car was a Standard, and they were 169^th overall.

She was involved with the social and organisational side of motorsport, too. The 1957 Monte Carlo Rally Ball, a charity event, was put on by a committee including Mary and Stirling Moss. The ball's President was Sheila van Damm. Mary and Sheila were friends who sometimes drove together.

Mary returned to the Tulip Rally in 1957, at the wheel of a Sunbeam Mark III. She was back in the driver’s seat, with Francoise Wilton Clarke on the maps. They finished, in 134^th place. 

She was part of the works Sunbeam team from 1958 to 1960, driving one for their ladies’ team, with other female drivers. For the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally, she was the leader of a three-woman Sunbeam team, with Lola Grounds and Doreen Reece. Mary and Lola were a good team. As a duo, they were 21^st in the 1958 Tulip Rally, in a Rapier. Mary was then sixteenth in the Alpine Rally in the summer.

Lola had moved to the Ford team for 1959, and Mary had a new co-driver in Daphne Freeman, who had got into motorsport through her work as Stirling Moss’s secretary. The new pairing entered the Monte, with Joyce Howard as a third driver, but had an accident and could not finish. As a two-woman team, Mary and Daphne were 39^th in the Tulip Rally, again in a Sunbeam Rapier.

Away from rallying proper, Mary was part of a team of female Rootes Group drivers sent to prove to the Belgian motorsport authorities that a Hillman Minx was able to manage 15,000 miles of bad Belgian pavé. Averaging 40mph, the team covered the distance in three weeks during the Rallye des Routes Pavées. The team included Nancy Mitchell, Sheila van Damm, Patricia Ozanne and Francoise Clarke. They were said to be responsible for a sharp spike in continental Hillman Minx sales.

At the beginning of 1960, Mary went back to the co-driver’s seat for the Monte, assisting Jimmy Ray to eleventh place. It was quite unusual for her to be part of a mixed team. With a new co-driver again, Nesta Gilmour, she finished 105^th in the Tulip Rally, in a Rapier. The Alpine Rally was another of her favoured events, and she was 27^th in 1960, co-driven by Patricia Ozanne.

She continued to drive private Sunbeams in 1961, including a Rapier on the Monte Carlo Rally, with Pauline Mayman and Daphne Freeman. They had been running well, but a puncture prevented them from claiming a penalty-free run. An unusual part of their rally plan was the delivery of smoked salmon to Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. The fish had come from a manufacturer in their start city of Stockholm. It is unclear whether the delicacy reached its intended recipient. Mary and Pauline drove the same car on that year’s Tulip Rally, and were 43^rd overall.

For the 1962 Monte, she co-drove for Patricia Ozanne, in a Mini, which Patricia had bought from the works BMC team the previous year. They started from Warsaw, but do not appear to have finished. This was Mary’s last major rally.

She died in 1992.

(Image copyright alamy.com)

Female Drivers in the "Marathon Rallies" of the 1960s and 1970s

Bronwyn Burrell, Katrina Kerridge and Tish Ozanne in 1970

The late 1960s saw the first of a series of cross-continental marathon rallies taking place. The first of these was organised by the Daily Express newspaper in 1968, to show off British engineering and bring some excitement to a rather unsettled Britain. Women drivers took part in all of them.

The Daily Express London-Sydney Marathon Rally, 1968

It was 10,000 miles long, and ran from London to France and Italy, then the former Yugoslavia and further south, before passing through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The cars were then transported by boat to Australia, for the final leg.

The entry list was limited to 100 cars. Four of these were driven by women, and two further crews had female co-drivers. As with the rest of the entry, the female contingent was a mix of seasoned professionals and enthusiastic adventuresses. Rosemary Smith had been tipped to win the Ladies’ award, but ran into trouble up the Khyber Pass and lost time, as well as losing a cylinder in her Lotus Cortina. The winner of the Coupe des Dames was a four-woman, Anglo-Australian crew in the unlikely choice of a Volvo estate. Elsie Gadd, an Australian property surveyor, assembled the team, drafting in British racers, Jenny Tudor-Owen and Sheila Kemp, and Anthea Castell, an Australian ranch-hand with experience of driving in adverse conditions.

In common with many other entries, some of the female teams were sponsored by other media outlets, including Nova fashion magazine (Jean Denton). The Morris 1100 of Eileen Westley was sponsored by the Sydney Telegraph, for which all three drivers worked. It was named “The Galloping Tortoise” in the Australian press, and was prepared by BMC.

The rally was won by Andrew Cowan in a Hillman Hunter. Fifty-six cars finished. Below is a list of all the female finishers.

Elsie Gadd/Anthea Castell/Sheila Kemp/Jenny Tudor-Owen (Volvo 145S Estate) – 41^st

Jean Denton/Tom Boyce (MG B) – 42^nd

Rosemary Smith/Lucette Pointet (Ford Lotus Cortina) – 48^th

Eileen Westley/Minny Macdonald/Jenny Gates (Morris 1100) – 50^th

Sylvia Kay (co-driver to John Cotton in a Peugeot 504) – 21^st

Jenny Brittan (co-driver to Nick Brittan in a Ford Lotus Cortina) – DNF

L-R: Pat Wright, Liz Crellin, Jean Denton

The Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally, 1970

The next big marathon rally was themed around that year’s World Cup, which was held in Mexico. It was even longer than its predecessor, at 16,000 miles, and ran through Europe to Spain and Portugal, before transferring to Brazil, and then across South and Central America to Mexico.

Again, the field was a mix of professionals, such as eventual winner, Hannu Mikkola, in a works Ford Escort, and amateurs, including some celebrities, such as footballer Jimmy Greaves. Five female drivers entered, and Rosemary Smith was the best of them. Her car was an Austin Maxi, continuing the trend for unlikely rally cars winning the Coupe des Dames.

Below are the results for the female crews.

Rosemary Smith/Alice Watson/Ginette Derolland (Austin Maxi) – 10^th

Jean Denton/Pat Wright/Liz Crellin (Morris 1800) – 18^th

Claudine Trautmann/Colette Perrier (Citroen DS 21) – 24th

Patricia Ozanne/Katrina Kerridge/Bronwyn Burrell (Austin Maxi) - DNF

Lavinia Roberts/David Jones/Arthur Hazelrigg (Ford Mustang) – DNF

London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, 1974

The second World Cup Rally contained quite a lot of improvisation. The route between London and Munich was not long or dramatic enough, so the organisers added in a huge loop through Spain, North Africa, and as far south as Nigeria, before travelled back up through Turkey, the Balkans and Italy, to Germany. This caused untold problems, as the route itself was not well-plotted, and a large number of competitors got lost in the desert. Out of seventy starters, nineteen finished. Only five cars completed the full route; among them were the Team Aseptogyl Peugeots of Christine Dacremont and Claudine Trautmann. The rally was not as well-supported this year, due to the 1973 oil crisis and financial pressures on the works teams. It was not revived in 1978.

Christine Dacremont/Yveline Vannoni (Peugeot 504) – 2^nd

Claudine Trautmann/Marie-Odile Desvignes (Peugeot 504) – 4^th

Anne O’Connell (co-driver to Mike O’Connell in a Ford Escort Mexico) – DNF

Singapore Airlines London-Sydney Marathon Rally, 1977

A final big marathon rally was held in 1977, a new edition of the original London-Sydney event. Some of the manufacturers came back on board, including Mercedes, who dominated the rally, and Leyland. Very few women took part, apart from those in Team Aseptogyl diesel Fiats.

Christine Dacremont/Yveline Vannoni (Fiat 131 Diesel) – DNF

Marianne Hoepfner (co-driver to Bob Neyret in a Fiat 131 Diesel) – 15^th

Further revivals of the Marathon took place from 1993 onwards, but these were classic events.

(Morris 1800 image copyright Woman Magazine)

Patricia (Tish) Ozanne

Tish (right) with Bronwyn Burrell and Katrina Kerridge, and the Austin Maxi

Patricia was born in the Channel Islands in 1923. She began her rallying career quite late, in her twenties, after settling in Suffolk with her retired father. Prior to this, she had undertaken a lengthy world tour, with some time spent on a sheep station in Australia. Here, she is alleged to have narrowly avoided taking part in an armed duel with another woman, over a man.

Her earliest rallying exploits were strictly at club level: treasure hunts, navigational tests and road rallies. She began her stage rally career in 1953. Initially, her entries in major events were as a co-driver. Among others, she sat beside Annie Soisbault, with whom she shared a Triumph TR3 in 1958. Their partnership was tempestuous, with Annie apparently pushing Tish out of the car for making a navigational error, during the Monte Carlo Rally.

She made her first major appearances as a driver in 1959, as part of the works BMC team, driving one of the first wave of rally Minis. They entered her into the German and RAC Rallies. The German result is not forthcoming, and she retired from the RAC Rally. Away from BMC, Tish used her own Riley 1.5 on the Tulip Rally, and was second in the Ladies’ standings. She was also part of an all-female Rootes squad for the Rallye des Routes Pavées in Belgium, driving a Hillman Minx.

In 1960, she continued as a BMC works driver, with an increased schedule. This included the Monte Carlo, Geneva, Tulip, and Acropolis rallies. Her best result was in Geneva, where she was second in class, third lady and 27th overall. Retirements in the Monte Carlo and RAC Rallies brought disappointment.

For the 1961 season, she bought her works Mini from 1960 and continued as a privateer. With Pat Allison on the maps, she entered the RAC Rally, but was unplaced. They won the Ladies’ award on the London Rally.

In 1962, she entered the Monte once more, with Mary Handley-Page. They were again unplaced, after starting at Warsaw. After a nasty accident involving a lorry on the following year’s event, the Mini was retired.

It was replaced with a Ford Cortina in 1964. This year, Patricia’s best result seems to have been a “second lady” award on the Tulip Rally.

After that, she drove only sporadically for a while, and not in the major rallies. Her next big event seems to have been Monte Carlo in 1970, back at the wheel of a Mini with Pat Wright. Unfortunately, they went over the time limit whilst helping an injured crew on the road behind them. Later in the year, they drove in the Sherry Rally in Spain, using the unlikely choice of an Austin Maxi. Tish used the same car in that year’s World Cup Rally, and she drove it with Bronwyn Burrell and Katrina Kerridge. They did not finish, after coming to grief in some very thick mud in Argentina, and going over the time limit.

Her last event was the Circuit of Donegal in 1973. She was reunited with both the Mini, and Pat Wright. According to Pat, the Circuit of Donegal was one of Tish's favourite rallies, as it consisted of her favoured tarmac roads.

After that, Patricia went back to one of her first loves: music. She continued playing her guitar as a session musician, and also involved herself in other creative pursuits. Her flower paintings had a small following, as did her designs for soft furnishings. Later, she redesigned several houses and gardens in her own style. She ran a guesthouse until she was well into her eighties, and only retired a year before her death in 2009, at the age of 85.

(Image from http://www.carwriteups.co.uk/)