Iris Capell

Lady Iris Capell rallied and trialled cars in the British Isles in the early 1930s. 

Born in 1895, she was the first daughter of George Capell, the fifth Earl of Essex. She grew up in a privileged environment and was presented as a debutante in 1913. As a teenager, she was known for her love of roller-skating and golf. She learned to drive shortly before or during the First World War, when she served as a driver for the National Food Fund. Before that, she had worked as a nurse at Lady Murray's hospital in France.

Before taking to motor competition, Lady Iris saw cars as a business opportunity. At the age of 25, she opened her own garage in London, which hired out cars. She used the name "Miss K Adams" professionally and drove for the firm occasionally. The company motto, according to the Daily Record, as "Punctuality and Reliability". In 1922, she enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, studying Classics. For a while, she concentrated on study and work.

It may have been a string of increasingly expensive motoring convictions in 1928 that pushed her towards rallies as an outlet for her enthusiasm. In 1929, she entered the first-ever overnight trial for women drivers only, running between London and Exeter. Iris drove an Alvis and won a first-class award for her non-stop performance.

The London-Exeter event was the first organised by the Women's Automobile and Sports Association (WASA), of which she was a leading member. The club was formed in 1927 and a committee was first elected in 1929, with Iris as a vice-president. She was a regular in their trials, competing in the London-Land's End event again in 1930. Its big trial in 1931 was from London to Westward Ho! in Devon, and Iris once again took part.

The 1932 RAC Rally was the first major rally she entered. Starting from London, she drove a Talbot, co-driven by Patricia McOstrich and Geraldine Hedges and their dogs. "They are as enthusiastic about motoring as I am," Iris told the Western Morning News. The timed sections made up 1000 miles and ran between London, Edinburgh and Torquay, where the event ended with a Concours d'Elegance. She was part of a three car WASA team with Margaret Allan in a Lagonda and Paddie Naismith in her Standard. Iris and her companions finished on time and she described the rally as "a pleasant journey."

Later in the year, she was on organisational duty at Brooklands for WASA, on the committee for the Guys Gala hospital benefit. She did not race, although WASA did hold their own handicap. Her duties included hosting the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and the Queen Mother) in the Royal Enclosure.

She is listed as a finisher in the 1933 Ulster Rally, again starting from London and travelling to Ireland by ferry from Liverpool. Her car was another Talbot, which she bought new in late 1932 and had painted beige. 

As well as stage rallies, she was a regular entrant in trials in the 1930s, particularly those organised by the Women's Automobile and Sports Association (WASA), of which she was a leading member. She competed in several of their Cotswold-based trials, as well as donating a trophy to the club. In 1934, she was one of the 67 women out on the Aston Clinton hillclimb for the club's first high-speed trial, which followed a regularity test. The hillclimb was 350 yards long, from a standing start. During the regularity section, Iris's car got stuck in mud and had to be pulled out by a team of horses.

She did compete at Brooklands at least once, although not in a head-to-head race. The 1934 British Empire Trophy featured Iris and her Talbot taking on the steep Test Hill, winning the trophy for touring cars.

WASA held a Welsh Trial in 1935. Iris did not compete this time, but acted as a steward. In the summer, she entered her car into the club's Silver Jubilee Motor Gala at the Hurlingham Club, in honour of George V. The following year, she represented the club as a judge in the Bexhill Concours d'Elegance.

A "Lady Iris Capell Trophy" was awarded in 1937, to Miss EV Watson, who participated in the club's Cotswold Trial in a Frazer Nash-BMW.

Although her competition career wound down, she remained an active and senior part of the WASA motoring committee, as well as playing golf occasionally at its tournaments. As an officer of WASA, she was invited to speak at many functions, from gala dinners to road safety conferences. She was still a figure in the automotive business world and was a director of at least one engineering company.

Her other major interest, which she maintained throughout her life, was the theatre. She wrote plays herself, translated them from French, acted as a young woman and produced many amateur shows, as well as opening her own theatrical bookshop, serving amateur dramatic societies, and even owning (or co-owning) a couple of theatres.

When the Second World War looked like it was about to break out, she became a leading member of the Women's Voluntary Services for Civil Defence, managing the transport department. In the papers, she was keen to stress that the women of the WVS were "not just a set of well-meaning amateurs who would only end by fussing around and getting in the way of responsible people." Although her advocacy was largely successful, she did embarrass herself in 1941 by getting pulled over for speeding in uniform, on her way to a meeting at Erith.

She and fellow rally driver Morna Vaughan led a group of twelve drivers in a night-time, no-headlights trial at a private road in Croydon. A report in Queen magazine, which covered official WASA stories, suggested that they were all racing drivers.

Later, she campaigned for the Liberal party, sitting on the executive committee between 1957 and 1962. In 1960, she got herself into another automotive scrape when her car collided with a bus near Thame. She suffered a head injury but recovered.

At one point, she was rumoured to be a potential bride for Prince Edward, later the Duke of Windsor, but the union never happened. 

She died in 1977.

(Image from The Genealogist Image Archive)