Audrey Sale-Barker
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Audrey_Sale-Barker_1932.jpg/220px-Audrey_Sale-Barker_1932.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Audrey_Sale-Barker_skiing.png/220px-Audrey_Sale-Barker_skiing.png)
Medal record | ||
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Representing ![]() | ||
Women's Alpine skiing | ||
World Championships | ||
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1932 Cortina d'Ampezzo | Slalom |
Audrey Florice Durell "Wendy" Drummond Sale-Barker
Skiing career
An inaugural member of the
American skier Alice Kiare described Sale-Barker as a striking figure:
Audrey Sale-Barker made an extraordinary impression on everybody who saw her ski. Very tall, extremely slim, her height accentuated by trousers so long that they touched the ground around her boots, pale honey-coloured hair, a vague dreamy expression, and when she skied I can only describe her as a sleep-walker. She stood very erect, with both arms slightly lifted in front of her, she had little or no reserve strength in a race, gave everything she had, and often collapsed and fainted when a race was over. She had incredible courage, and I will never forget seeing her take the last steep slope of Dengert at the finish of the 1928 Arlberg-Kandahar absolutely straight, with lifted arms like someone in a trance.
— [7]
In 1929 a letter was received inviting the British to send skiers to compete in an event in Poland. The organisers in Zakopane were surprised to find that the British team included Sale-Barker and another LSC founder member Doreen Elliott. Elliott and Sale-Barker were allowed to join the skiing competition and the skiers were impressed when they finished 13th and 14th.[8]
Sale-Barker was captain of the British women's team at the 1936 Winter Olympics, held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, the first Olympics to include alpine skiing.[9]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/1942_UK_gov_pic_of_ATA_pilots_Lettice_Curtis_et_al.jpg/220px-1942_UK_gov_pic_of_ATA_pilots_Lettice_Curtis_et_al.jpg)
Aviation
In 1929, Sale-Barker earned her 'ticket' from the
In June 1940, Sale-Barker joined the Women's Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), the organisation responsible for ferrying military aircraft from the aircraft-factories to the RAF units.[15][16] She was a close friend of famed ATA pilot Amy Johnson.[4] On 30 November 1945, it was Sale-Barker who was charged with lowering the ATA flag for the last time.[17]
Marriage and later life
On 6 August 1947, she married fellow-aviator
Her nephew is the Scottish Conservative politician
References
- ^ Ancestry.com. London, England, Electoral Registers, 1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2010.(subscription required)
- ^ Channelography Archived 11 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ FreeBMD[dead link]
- ^ a b c The Countess of Selkirk, The Herald (Glasgow), 24 Dec. 1994.
- ^ a b thePeerage.com Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th ed., (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999, vol. 2, p. 2578
- ^ Google Books Arnold Lunn, The Story of Ski-ing. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1952, pp. 87, 97, 207.
- ^ Google Books Alice Kiare, in Skiing, the International Sport, ed. Roland Palmedo. New York: Derrydale Press, 1937. Quoted in Arnold Lunn, The Story of Ski-ing. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1952, p. 96.
- ^ raulasturias. "Ladies Ski Club". Nevasport.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ^ Whittell, Giles. Spitfire Women of World War II. London: HarperPress, 2007, p. 83-85.
- ^ "The Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, Official Notices to Members," Flight, 25 Oct 1929. via Flightglobal
- ^ "Girl Flyers to the Cape Held Up." Flight, 10 Nov. 1932. via Flightglobal
- ^ "Girl flyers, hurt, rescued in Africa" (AP), New York Evening Post, 17 Jan 1933, p. 3. via Fulton History
- ^ "Aeronautics: Lost & Found," Time, 30 Jan. 1933.(subscription required)
- ^ Nigel Griffiths , "A salute to the ATA, 60 years on." General Aviation, 18 Mar 2008. IAOPA Europe
- ^ Alan Long,"ATA First Eight." British Air Transport Auxiliary, 2001.
- ^ "The Woman Engineer Vol 5". twej.theiet.org. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ Whittell, Giles. Spitfire Women of World War II. London: HarperPress, 2007, p. 272
- ^ a b Elizabeth Douglas-Hamilton, "The countess on her wedding day in 1949," The Herald (Glasgow), 24 Dec 1994.