Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe

Commodore Earl Howe (r.) During the Second World War on board the HMS Howe with his son Lieutenant Viscount Curzon

Earl Howe in Le Mans in 1931

Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, 5th Earl Howe CBE , PC (born May 1, 1884 in Mayfair , † July 26, 1964 in Amersham ) was a British naval officer , politician and motor sportsman .

origin

He was the only child of Richard Curzon, 4th Earl Howe from his first marriage to Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Spencer-Churchill, daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough . As his father's apparent marriage , he carried the courtesy title Viscount Curzon from 1900 to 1929 . He attended Eton College and studied at Christ Church College of Oxford University .

Military and politics

Francis Curzon followed a long family tradition and was trained as an officer in the Royal Navy after leaving school . In 1907 he was promoted to Commander of the Sussex Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve . During the First World War his unit found no use as a ship's crew and was used as infantry as the 6th Battalion of the Royal Naval Division . He was on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth when she took part in the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. Until the end of the war in 1918, he led his battalion in the fighting on the Western Front , but then also served as aide-de-camp for King George V.

After the end of the war he turned to politics. In the newly created constituency (located in London) Battersea South, he was in the general election in 1918 as a candidate of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons voted. In 1921 he returned to his old unit as a captain and was promoted to Commodore in 1933 . When his father died in 1929, he inherited his title of nobility as Earl Howe , leaving the House of Commons and having to move to the House of Lords . He was also appointed to the Privy Council in 1929 .

Motorsport

In the late 1920s, Curzon began to be involved in motorsport. Together with Dudley Benjafield he organized an association of British racing drivers - the British Racing Drivers' Club  - of which he became first president in 1929. As a driver, his career began very late. At the age of 44, he drove his first car race in a Bugatti Type 43 in 1928 at the Brooklands 6-hour race . In the 1930s, however, the Briton became a well-known driver well beyond the borders of his home country. He financed his races himself and was known for the particularly meticulous preparation of his racing vehicles. Since he acquired and used many different cars - including a Mercedes-Benz SSK from Rudolf Caracciola in 1930  - his racing team was considered the best-selling in Europe in the mid-1930s. He competed six times between 1929 and 1935 in the Le Mans 24-hour race . The crowning glory was the overall victory in 1931 , which he achieved together with Tim Birkin in an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM .

Aside from the classic on the Sarthe, Curzon won the Donington Park Trophy in 1933 and the Grosvenor Cup in 1938. In 1937 he had a serious accident at the Campbell Trophy in Brooklands , but returned to the race tracks after six months of recovery.

After the end of the Second World War , in which he no longer actively participated, Francis Curzon shifted his role in motorsport to that of an organizer and team boss. Tazio Nuvolari competed in races for him and he was instrumental in organizing the first Formula 1 Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1948 at Silverstone . The BRDC International Trophy  - organized by the British Driver Racing Club - also goes back to his initiative . In recognition of its services to British motorsport, the club donated the Earl Howe Trophy , which has been given to the best-placed British driver in the Indianapolis 500-mile race since 1999 , or to a driver who has represented British drivers in North America in particular.

The Earl was married to his cousin Mary Curzon, from whom he was divorced in 1937. This marriage came from Lady Sarah Curzon, who married Formula 1 racing driver Piers Courage in the 1960s . After his death in 1970 she married the politician John Aspinall .

Francis Curzon died in 1964 and the title of Earl Howe passed to his eldest son Edward.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1929	Bentley Motors Ltd.	Bentley 4½ liter	Bernard Rubin	failure	Electrics
1930	Earl Howe	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Super Sport	Leslie Callingham	5th place and class win
1931	Earl Howe	Alfa Romeo 8C 2800 LM	Tim Birkin	Overall victory
1932	Earl Howe	Alfa Romeo 8C 2800 LM	Tim Birkin	failure	Engine failure
1934	Earl Howe	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM	Tim Rose-Richards	failure	Clutch damage
1935	Earl Howe	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	Brian E. Lewis	failure	Cylinder damage

Web links

Commons : Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Viscount Curzon im Hansard (English)
• Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, 5th Earl Howe on thepeerage.com
• Leif Snellman: (Francis) Richard Henry Penn, Viscount Curzon, 5th Earl Howe (GB). www.kolumbus.fi, February 5, 2015, accessed on March 24, 2015 . 
• Earl Howe, United Kingdom. www.racingsportscars.com, accessed March 24, 2015 . 
• Image: Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe
• Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 33957, HMSO, London, p. 4476 ( PDF , English).

predecessor	Office	successor
Richard Curzon	Earl Howe 1929-1964	Edward Curzon