Joe Carstairs
Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs | |
---|---|
Born | Marion Barbara Carstairs 1 February 1900 London, England, United Kingdom |
Died | 18 December 1993 (aged 93) Naples, Florida, United States |
Nationality | British |
Other names | Joe, Tuffy |
Occupation(s) | Heiress, power boat racer |
Spouse | Count de Pret (1918–1921, annulment) |
Marion Barbara 'Joe' Carstairs (1 February 1900 – 18 December 1993)[1] was a wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed, eccentric lifestyle, and gender nonconformity. In the 1920s, she was known as the ‘fastest woman on water’.[2]
Biography
Carstairs was born in 1900 in
Carstairs' mother, an alcoholic and drug addict, later married Captain Francis Francis, with whom she had two more children, Evelyn (Sally) Francis and Francis Francis Jr. (Frank). She divorced Captain Francis to marry French count Roger de Périgny in 1915, but eventually left him because of his infidelity.
Carstairs had a rocky relationship with her mother, who sent her to the Low-Heywood School for Girls, a boarding school in Stamford, Connecticut, at the age of 11 due to her rebellious behaviour.[11][12]
1916–1934
During World War I, Carstairs served in France with the American
Joe Carstairs married a childhood friend, the French aristocrat Count Jacques de Pret, on 7 January 1918 in Paris. The purpose of the marriage was simply to allow Carstairs’ access to her
In 1920, with three former colleagues from the Women's Legion Mechanical Transport Section,[Note 2] she started the X-Garage, a car-hire and chauffeuring service that featured a women-only staff of drivers and mechanics. Carstairs (and her friends and lovers) lived in a flat above the garage,[16] which was situated near Cromwell Gardens in London's fashionable South Kensington district. Several of the X-Garage staff had served as drivers during the war and spoke French, German, or Italian. The cars and drivers could be hired for long-distance trips and the business specialised in taking grieving relatives for visits to war graves and former battlefields in France and Belgium. They were also hired for journeys within London and the garage had an arrangement with the Savoy Hotel to transport guests to the theatre or to shows. During the early 1920s, X-Garage cars were a familiar sight in London's fashionable circles.[17]
In 1925, X-Garage closed and Carstairs inherited a fortune from Standard Oil via her mother and grandmother. The same year, she had her first speedboat built and named it Gwen after one of her former lovers, Gwen Farrar. But it was soon renamed Newg after capsizing on a test run.[18] With it, she won her first trophy, the Southampton Water trophy.[11]
She was also given a
Between 1925 and 1930, Carstairs spent considerable time in powerboats and became a very successful racer winning many notable trophies – the Duke of York's Trophy in 1926,
Carstairs was known for her generosity towards friends. She was close to several male racing drivers and land speed record competitors, using her considerable wealth to assist them. She paid $10,000 of her money to fund the building of one of the
Later life: Whale Cay and Florida
In 1934, Carstairs invested $40,000 purchasing the island of
During this time, she also started writing poetry under the pseudonym of Hans Bernstein.[11]
After selling Whale Cay in 1975, Carstairs moved to
Carstairs died in
See also
Notes
- ^ For the remainder of her life, Joe Carstairs claimed her mother had been murdered by her husband for her money. There was no evidence for this, but Voronoff's inheritance from Evelyn made him a wealthy man. See Summerscale (1997), p.34
- ^ Bardie and Molly Coleclough, and Joan Mackern, who had been awarded the OBE for her war-services.
References
- Citations
- ^ "Personal column". The Times. London, England. 11 January 1994. p. 16.
[Entire para.] CARSTAIRS – On 18th December 1993, Marion B (Jo), at Naples, Florida, USA, aged 93.
- ^ "Women's Employment | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
- required.)
- ^ Irish Times(9 August 1997) Weekend Books: A fast lady called Joe. (review of The Queen of Whale Cay)
- ^ "No. 26286". The London Gazette. 10 May 1892. p. 2705.
- ^ "No. 27171". The London Gazette. 6 March 1900. p. 1532.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 16.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 15.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 24.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d e Pettis, Ruth (2015). "Carstairs, Marion Barbara "Joe" (1900-1993)" (PDF). GLBTQ, Inc.
- ISBN 978-0-670-88018-8.
- ^ ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 34.
- ^ "No. 32620". The London Gazette. 24 February 1922. p. 1652.
- ^ Clarsen (2011), p.42
- ^ Clarsen (2011), p.43
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 37.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-5011-3709-9.
- ^ "Photograph with Lord Tod Wadley". 6 May 2008.
- ISBN 978-1-135-22528-5.
- ^ "Rick McGraw, "Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) the Boat Builder", Classic Boat Spring 2012, Issue 113, p. 24" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 105-106.
- ^ ISBN 0-349-11596-6.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 217-218.
- ^ Summerscale 1997, p. 233—234.
- Bibliography
- Georgine Clarsen (2011). Eat My Dust: Early Women Motorists. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-421-405-148.
- Adrian Rance (1989). Fast Boats and Flying Boats. Southampton: Ensign Publications. ISBN 1-85455-026-8.
- Summerscale, Kate (1997). The Queen of Whale Cay. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-670-88018-3.