Speedqueens at War

This weekend’s commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele have inspired me to write something slightly different for Speedqueens.

Women served in and alongside the military in many ways during the First World War. Ladies who had been part of the motoring scene were well-represented among them.

Muriel Thompson was probably the most famous of the military Speedqueens. Muriel, who had raced at Brooklands, served in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry from 1915. She was stationed in Belgium. Her motoring experience made her an ideal choice for driving ambulances; transporting casualties and performing battlefield first aid were among the duties of the FANY.

Her first diary entry of 1916 reads:

Jan 1st We have started the first woman’s M.A.C. (Motor Ambulance Convoy) ever to work for the British Army. Our camp is on a little hill near the sea, behind the Casino. Most of us live in tents and bathing machines. I share a small chalet with three others. The weather is fiendish, gales and torrents of rain. The cars are old and in a bad state, and we are short of drivers. We mess in a big tent, all together. Lots of work but are all so very pleased to be here.

“Thompers”, as she was known, received the Order of Leopold II from the King of the Belgians, in recognition of her courage under fire. This was in addition to the French Croix de Guerre and the British Military Medal. The British award was for “conspicuous devotion to duty during an hostile air raid”, during which the FANY drivers continued to work under aerial bombardment.

She rose up the FANY ranks and was commanding convoys before the end of the war. Aside from occasional testing, she did not return to motorsport after the Armistice.

Muriel’s greatest rival in the Brooklands Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap of 1908 was Christabel Ellis. Christabel also served in the military and used her motoring skills. She was one of the original leaders of the Women’s Legion and served as a Commandant in the Motor Transport section. The Legion was formed in 1915. Christabel is said to have driven ambulances in France and Serbia prior to this, as a Red Cross volunteer. Her main job post-1916 was handling recruitment to the Legion. She was also involved in managing teams of despatch riders. She was made an OBE in 1918 and a CBE the year after.

Christabel Ellis sometimes hillclimbed a sidecar combination with her cousin, Mary Ellis. Mary was much younger than Christabel, but the pair were good friends. The younger Miss Ellis was an ambulance driver too and served with the Red Cross in 1917. At about this time, she became one of the first qualified female medical doctors in the UK.

Ethel Locke King was one of the founders of Brooklands, the first woman to drive on the circuit and runner-up to Muriel Thompson in the 1908 Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap. She did not venture to the front herself but she did found fifteen auxiliary hospitals in Surrey for injured soldiers. One of them was set up in her own house at Brooklands itself. Ethel was the Assistant County Director for the Voluntary Aid Detachment, a female nursing corps. She was in charge of 19 companies of VAD nurses, over 700 individuals. For this, she was made a Dame in 1918.

Some Speedqueens began their racing careers after the War, perhaps having developed their driving skills in military service. Gwenda Hawkes, the Montlhéry and Brooklands record-breaker, drove a Red Cross ambulance on the Eastern Front. She may have been a colleague of Christabel Ellis. She was Gwenda Glubb then, and began racing motorcycles with her first husband, Sam Janson, whom she met during the war.

Morna Vaughan and Lady Iris Capell would become senior figures in the Women’s Automobile and Sports Association in the late 1920s. They both competed in rallies, including the Monte Carlo Rally.

Like Mary Ellis, Morna Vaughan (then Morna Rawlins) was a medical doctor, one of the UK’s first female surgeons. She is believed to have served in a military hospital. Her specialism was gynaecology and genito-urinary medicine, so it is unclear what sort of medicine she was practising at the front.

Iris Capell joined up as a nurse with the Red Cross, aged nineteen. She worked in military hospitals in the south of England. Iris was a lifelong committee woman and a senior figure in the Women’s Voluntary Service during the Second World War.

This is not an exhaustive list and it is very Anglocentric. Please feel free to comment with your own suggestions, or email me.

(Image copyright Mary Evans Picture Library)

Muriel Thompson

Muriel in her FANY uniform

Muriel Thompson was Brooklands’ first female winner in 1908, when she won the Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap and the Match Race that followed it, defeating Christabel Ellis.

She was a member of the Berkshire Automobile Club from at least 1904. Among her earliest practical motorsport experiences was a run in the club’s Gymkhana in 1904. She drove a Wolseley in a “Legal Limit Race” on a grass track at Hall Place near Maidenhead. She was second overall.

She made another appearance in the Berkshire AC’s Gymkhana in 1905. She was third in the “Bending Race”, a slalom between markers, driving an 18hp Siddeley, belonging to her brother.

Her first motorsport success seems to have been a win in a Blindfold Test at the Berkshire Club’s 1907 Gymkhana. The competitors were required to drive blindfolded towards a flag 75 yards away, from a stationary position facing away from the flag. Muriel got within forty feet of the flag, in 25 seconds.

Her car was an Austin, nicknamed "Pobble", which had belonged to her brother, Oscar, a regular racer. He was a member of the BARC, and as such, was able to enter his car into the first ladies’ event at Brooklands, held in July 1908. Eight ladies entered the Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap, with five making the start. Muriel won comfortably, after the favourite, Christabel Ellis, ran into trouble. Commentators likened Muriel’s upright driving stance to that of “an American jockey”. Shortly afterwards, Muriel and Christabel challenged each other to a match race at Brooklands. Muriel won again.

In 1908, she also went up against Dorothy Levitt in the Aston Hill Climb, driving the Austin. She was eighth overall. Her achievements were reported in Queen magazine.

Opportunities for Muriel to race "Pobble" were quite limited, due to the BARC's ban on women drivers, but she did make some other appearances.

In 1909, she was part of the winning Berkshire Motor Club team in the five-mile Inter-Club Team Trophy, at Brooklands. She was permitted to race due to the meeting being a non-BARC sanctioned event.

The same year, she was appointed by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) as an official driver. She acted as chauffeur to Emmeline Pankhurst and other prominent suffragettes in the WSPU’s own Austin. She was succeeded as chauffeur by Vera Holme, but was still an active member of the Union in 1912.

In July 1911, at the RAC's Associated Motor Clubs meeting, she won the Declaration Handicap, in the Austin. At the same meeting, she revisited her blind-driving skills, winning another blindfold driving competition.

The following year, she returned to Brooklands for the RAC Associated Clubs meeting once more. She drove Pobble in the Skilful Driving Race. She posted a very fast time in the hillclimb section up the Test Hill, but clipped an obstacle in the reversing section. In yet another blindfold driving competition, she did not live up to her usual high standards and did not stop when she reached the marker.

She later became a decorated war hero, as a WW1 ambulance driver and medic, in the FANY. Among her awards was a British Military Medal, French Croix de Guerre, and from Belgium, the Order of Leopold II and Queen Elisabeth Medal. Muriel commanded convoys and delivered aid to soldiers on the frontline. She took her own Cadillac, named “Kangaroo”, over with her and it was used as an ambulance. Muriel kept a detailed diary throughout the war, which has been useful in piecing together the history of the FANY. Her nickname among her FANY colleagues was “Thompers”.

She continued testing cars occasionally until the 1930s. In 1939, she died of encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness), probably contracted during a flu epidemic. She was 65.

(Image from http://www.ocotilloroad.com/geneal/thompson3.html)

The Earliest Women's Races

Ellen Jouanny and a De Dion motor tricycle

Events for women drivers have existed almost since the earliest days of motorsport.

Le Championnat des Chauffeuses

In 1897, the first known ladies’ race was held at the Longchamps racecourse, in Paris. It was billed as the “Championnat des Chauffeuses” (Women Drivers’ Championship), and was held as part of a race meeting for those involved in showbusiness. Among the entrants were a vaudeville actress (Ellen Jouanny) and a costume designer (Léa Lemoine). These events would later become the "Championnat des Artistes". In the early days, they mainly consisted of bicycle races, which some of the "chauffeuses" also entered. It was organised by the Paris Echo newspaper.

Eight women competed, riding De Dion motorised tricycles. The format of the event consisted of three elimination runs, of one lap each, and a final, of two laps. The results were as follows:

Heat 1

1. Léa Lemoine

2. Ellen Jouanny

3. Jane Boié

Heat 2

1. “Bossu”

2. Germaine Doverne

3. Hélène Darbell

Heat 3

1. De Grandval

2. “Hellé”

Final

1.  Léa Lemoine

2.  De Grandval

3.   “Bossu”

The competitors all received prizes, with the winner, Léa Lemoine, being presented with a bracelet.

The Championnat was run at least three times, between 1897 and 1899. Some of the drivers, including Léa Lemoine, returned for all three editions. Later events were open to cyclecars as well as tricycles.

The Ranelagh Automobile Gymkhana

In July, 1900, the first ladies’ race in the UK was held at the Ranelagh Club in Barnes, London. It was part of the Ranelagh Automobile Gymkhana, which comprised of a series of races, challenges and motorised games. The race was run on a course a little less than a mile long, and consisted of a single lap. The results were as follows:

1. Miss Weblyn (6hp Daimler “Parisian”)

2. Mrs. Edward Kennard (De Dion Voiturette)

3. Miss M. Lloyd-Price (4hp Panhard)

DNF: Miss Vera Butler (6hp Panhard)

Vera Butler also took part in the “Starting and Stopping Handicap” later on.

For a long time, there was some confusion around this race, as “Weblyn” was written down somewhere as “Wemblyn”, making it hard to verify her existence.

The Gymkhana was not a one-off, and more ladies’ races were held. In 1904, a ladies' race was organised, but as only one driver, Mrs. George Thrupp, turned up, she was awarded the prize in a walkover. After this, the Gymkhana appears to have become an official event of the Ladies' Automobile Club, the first all-female car club in the UK. They held gymkhanas at Ranelagh in 1905 and 1906, at least.

The USA
The earliest women's race in the USA seems to have been held at Washington Park in Chicago, in September 1900. The track was a mile-long dirt oval. Two women took part, but the make and model of their cars is not recorded. They may well have been electric vehicles, which were considered suitable for female drivers. A driver with the same surname as Jeanette Lindstrom is also recorded in an electric car race at the same meeting. The race was run over two laps.

Results:

1. Miss Jeanette Lindstrom
2. Miss M.E. Ryan

The Brooklands Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap
The original proprietors of Brooklands were not overly keen on female drivers, but in 1908, a Ladies’ Race was put on for them. Ethel Locke-King, one of the leading drivers, was the wife of Hugh Locke-King, the owner of Brooklands, and helped to run the track, despite not being allowed to drive on it competitively. Seven women entered the Handicap, but only five made it to the start.

Results:

1. Muriel Thompson (Austin “Pobble”)

2. Ethel Locke-King (Itala)

3. Christabel Ellis (Arrol-Johnston “Guarded Flame”)

4. Mrs J. Roland Hewitt (De Dion)

5. Nelly Ridge-Jones (Sunbeam)

DNS: Lady Muriel Gore-Brown (Humber)

DNS: Ada Billing (Mors)

Later, at the August Bank Holiday meeting, a Match Race was held between Muriel Thompson and Christabel Ellis, which was again won by Muriel Thompson.

(I am grateful to Grace’s Guide [www.gracesguide.co.uk] for information.)