Elsie Wisdom

Uper Tooting Road 2, built by her first builder husband; A few meters further on, Elsie Gleed was born in March 1904 in house number 23

GWK 1921; Elsie Wisdom's first automobile

Frazer Nash Boulogne; Support fleet Don Adlington and Elsie Wisdom at 2 × 12-hour race at Brooklands 1931

With the Leyland Eight of Parry Thomas Elsie Wisdom 1932 ran at Brooklands record runs

Elsie Mary "Bill" Wisdom (born March 2, 1904 in London , † April 13, 1972 ) was a British racing driver .

Origin and private life

Elsie Wisdom was born Elsie Gleed and the third of seven children of watchmaker and shopkeeper Benjamin Gleed (1869-1950) and his wife Emma Amelia, née Avenell (1871-1937), in Upper Tooting Road in the Borough of Wandsworth, London . She had six brothers and through them came into contact with the then new phenomenon of the automobile from an early age . As often as possible, she rode in the back seat of her brothers' motorcycles . When she reached the age of 16, she started riding a motorcycle herself. As the only girl besides six boys , she chose her own nickname and wanted to be addressed as "Bill" from a young age.

On January 2, 1925, she married the builder and widower Charles Thomas Swain, who built houses in Wandsworth. She met her second husband, Tommy Wisdom , under dramatic circumstances. A small dinghy with which Wisdom, born in 1906, his brother and a friend, sailed off the coast of southern England , capsized. While the friend drowned, the two wisdoms were able to save themselves on the bank. They were brought to the Swains' summer home by local residents. Elsie got to know Wisdom, who was relaxing on the living room couch. The ensuing affair led to her divorce from Charles Swain in 1929 and marriage to Wisdom in 1930.

In 1934 their only child, a daughter, was born. Ann Wisdom (1934–2015) was the rally co-driver of Pat Moss , Stirling Moss' sister , for many years . In 1962 she married the rally driver Peter Riley (1930-2016), with whom she had two children.

After their racing careers, Elsie and Tommy Wisdom lived in the English county of Sussex . Both died in 1972 . Elsie on April 13th and Tommy on November 12th.

Career as a racing driver

Elsie bought her first automobile in 1922 when she turned 18. Little GWK replaced the motorcycle she had been riding since she was 16. She came to motorsport through her second husband, Tommy Wisdom, who himself began to drive amateur races in the early 1930s. He enrolled his wife in a handicap race for women in Brooklands a week after the wedding . The emergency vehicle was the family-owned Frazer Nash . Tommy sold the message to his wife as a belated wedding present. Rumors from the time said that Elsie was not happy about her husband's arbitrariness and punished him with speechlessness for several days. She won the race overwhelmingly. Successes in mountain races followed and, parallel to her husband, the start of her international racing career in 1931.

Her success in the 1930 handicap race had made her famous, so that another report in Brooklands was no longer a surprise for the British trade press. Although she had no experience in endurance races , she drove the 2 × 12-hour race of Brooklands with Don Aldington with his Frazer Nash Boulogne . The race was held over two days and was not a classic 24-hour race . The duration of the race was 12 hours on each of the two consecutive days. In Brooklands in the 1930s, it was not allowed to drive at night in order not to deprive the sometimes wealthy residents of Weybridge from sleeping . Although she could not finish the race after an engine failure on Frazer Nach, the effort increased her popularity.

She owed her enormous popularity to another assignment in Brooklands. In 1932 she competed in the Brooklands 1000 mile race together with Australian Joan Richmond on a Riley 9 . Again, the race was run on two consecutive days and after a driving time of 12: 23.530 hours the ladies' duo won with a clear lead over Owen Saunders-Davies in the Talbot AV105 . After this success, British journalists wrote euphorically about the speed queens . In the fall of 1932 she took part in the Brooklands Speedweek. The Wisdoms borrowed the old Leyland Eight from JG Parry-Thomas . The average speed on her fastest lap with the heavy car was 121.47 mph (195.740 km / h).

In 1933 , she contested her first Le Mans 24-hour race . She was a partner of Mortimer Morris-Goodall and drove an Aston Martin 1½ Le Mans which retired after a bearing damage. In 1935 , the spectators at Le Mans saw the “Bill and Tommy Show” for the first time, the start of a married couple in two different teams. While Elsie with the Canadian Kay Petre one plant - Riley Nine Six MPH Racing drove husband Tommy went with John Donald Barnes on a plant - Singer 9 Le Mans into the race. Bets were made as to which of the two would finish better. The competition ended in a draw as both teams failed to finish. Also in 1938 there was no winner in this competition. In 1937 the couple competed together in the Mille Miglia for the first time, but could not finish the 1000 mile race through Italy.

The Second World War interrupted racing activities, which the couple resumed after the war. Elsie drove rallies , competed in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1948 and was her husband's co-driver on the Alpine tour in 1951 . A serious accident ended her career. It would be enough now and there is no need to further challenge fate, she said in an interview. Tommy continued his career; his last race as an active pilot was the 1957 Mille Miglia .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1933	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin 1½ Le Mans	Mortimer Morris-Goodall	failure	Bearing damage
1935	Riley Motor Company	Riley Nine MPH Six Racing	Kay Petre	failure	Engine failure
1938	Miss Dorothy Stanley-Turner	MG PB Midget	Arthur Dobson	failure	Clutch damage

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. 2 volumes. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Elsie Wisdom at Motorsport Magazine
• Elsie Wisdom at the Speed ​​Queen
• Elsie Wisdom at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About Elsie and Tommy Wisdom
2. ^ Obituary by Ann Wisdom
3. ↑ Via Peter Riley
4. ↑ About Elsie Wisdom's first race
5. ↑ Brooklands 2 × 12 Hours 1931
6. ↑ Brooklands 1000 Mile Race, 1932
7. ↑ About Elsie Wisdom and the Brooklands victory in 1932
8. ↑ Elsie Wisdom (left) and Joan Richmond before the start of the race
9. ↑ Mille Miglia 1937