Margaret Allan (racing driver)
Margaret Jennings | |
---|---|
Born | Margaret Mabel Gladys Allan 26 July 1909 |
Died | 21 September 1998 Carmarthenshire, Wales | (aged 89)
Education | Bedales School |
Occupation(s) | Racing driver and journalist |
Spouse | Christopher Jennings |
Children | 1 |
Relatives | Alexander Allan (great grandfather) Janie Allan (aunt) |
Margaret Mabel Gladys Jennings (née Allan; 26 July 1909 – 21 September 1998)
Early life
Margaret Allan was born in
Career
Racing driver
Allan's earliest entries into competitive motor sport were with her family's
Also in 1932, Allan had her first taste of circuit racing. Following a visit to the Brooklands circuit, she persuaded her father to buy a faster, supercharged, 2-litre Lagonda. It was with this car that she made her circuit debut at Brooklands, driving as part of the WASA entry in the popular Inter-Club Meeting.[1] Their three-woman team only narrowly missed the overall Stanley Cup title, by one point, being beaten by the Junior Car Club.[9] She returned to Brooklands for the 1933 Inter-Club Meeting, but had upgraded her mount to a 4½-litre Bentley. Although the WASA team only finished in third position, Allan herself took her first outright circuit race victory, as she finished first in the Junior Long Handicap event.[10] Allan's fastest lap was timed at 97.65 mph.[1] Her second Brooklands outright win also came at the wheel of the 4½-litre Bentley in the Junior Long Handicap, at the Easter Meeting the following year.[1]
Allan's performances attracted the attention of the works
1935 was also the year that saw Margaret Allan first drive one of the cars with which she was to become most strongly associated: Richard Marker's Bentley 4½ Litre, "Old Mother Gun". This car had won the 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans race as a factory Bentley entry, but since passing into Marker's ownership had been fitted with a streamlined, single-seater body that had formerly been fitted to a 3-litre car owned by Woolf Barnato, in place of the car's original tourer coachwork. Although her best result in 1935 with Old Mother Gun was only a second place, she was more successful with Dudley Folland's single-seat Frazer Nash Shelsley. With this car she won the handicap race at the August Bank Holiday Meeting, with a race lap best of 119.15 mph.[1] In practice she had lapped at 127.05 mph, faster than Earl Howe's contemporary race record of 127 mph.[3]
As it transpired, 1936 was to be Allan's last full season of competitive motorsport. Marker had refitted Old Mother Gun with a much larger, 6½-litre engine, greatly increasing its performance.[1] With it, Allan took second place at the opening Brooklands meeting that year, but won the Second Whitsun Long Handicap race a few weeks later. In this race her average speed was over 115 mph, but her best racing lap had been timed at 122.37 mph.[1] This achievement earned Allan an official 120 mph badge, one of only four (or five, sources disagree) women to do so over the existence of the Brooklands track as an active motorsport venue.[3] Later in 1936 she drove the Frazer Nash at the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb, where she won the Ladies' Prize.[5]
In 1943, looking back, a contributor to Motor Sport magazine assessed her racing record as "every bit as good ... as any man with comparable motor-cars."[12]
Following her marriage Margaret Jennings did make one brief return to competition, in the Circuit of Ireland rally in 1950.[1] Despite having been absent from competitive motorsport for well over a decade, Jennings won the Ladies' Prize for the event.[5]
WWII
During the Second World War she served as an ambulance driver, and was later posted to Bletchley Park.[13] There, she worked in the "intelligence de-coding centre,"[1] based in Hut 4.[14]
Journalism
After the war Jennings became a journalist and was
Personal life
In 1937 she married Christopher Jennings, later editor of The Motor, and retired from racing. They had one son. They moved to Gellideg, Llandyfaelog, Carmarthenshire, where Christopher became High Sheriff in 1957.[1] Gellideg was the first house in the village to be connected to the Llanelli electricity supply.[15] In addition to her motoring activities she also became a proficient gardener, and won multiple Royal Horticultural Society prizes over the following decades as well as exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show.[5]
Margaret Jennings died in Carmarthenshire, aged 89, in September 1998.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Venables, David (6 November 1998). "Obituary: Margaret Jennings". The Independent. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
- ^ Boddy, Bill (November 1998). "Obituary: Margaret Jennings". Motor Sport. 74 (11): 98. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
- ^ a b c Baker, Erin (2 June 2007). "Fast Ladies". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ Statutory Register of Births, Scotland, 1909 590/ 2 100 page 32
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7603-4644-0.
- ^ a b Evans, John (22 February 2013). "Top 10: Female Racing and Rally Drivers". Sunday Times Driving. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ "A Hardy Annual: Good Entry and a Sporting Course for the London-Gloucester". Motor Sport: 104. January 1931. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ "The Alpine Cup". Motor Sport: 497–500. September 1932. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ "Clubs at The Track". Motor Sport: 400–402. July 1932. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ "The Clubs at Brooklands". Motor Sport: 476–477. August 1933. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ "Relay Race Won in a Thunderstorm". Motor Sport. August 1934. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ^ "The Fair Sex Should Be Allowed to Race – A Defence". Motor Sport: 136 & 139. July 1943. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-84584-225-3.
- ^ "Roll of Honour".
- ^ "Community History - Llandyfaelog Community Council". www.llandyfaelog.org.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2019.