NAME Gwenda Mary Hawkes
AGE 95 - born June 1, 1894 / died May 27, 1990
COUNTRY England
JOB Ambulance driver and Motor racing driver
Gwenda herself served during World War I as an ambulance driver, and as a result of her skill and endeavours on both the Russian Front and Rumanian Front from 1914 to 1918, she was awarded both the Cross of St. George and the Cross of St. Stanislaus and was also mentioned in despatches.
Following her marriage to Colonel Sam Janson, a director of the Spyker car company, on 17 February 1920 in Brompton, Gwenda became interested in motor-cycle racing, competing in events at Brooklands.
In the winter of 1921, Gwenda established the 1000-mile record on a Ner-A-Car motor-cycle and in 1922 took the Double-12-hour record at Brooklands on a Trump-JAP.
Gwenda spent time away from home whilst participating in motor-cycling events, and the close relationship that she developed with Colonel Neil Stewart, who was involved with the company who provided her motor-cycles, resulted in Janson divorcing her in 1923.
Gwenda and Stewart married, and, as a result of night-time restrictions on the use of the circuit at Brooklands interfering with Glenda's motor-cycle record breaking activities, the pair moved to France to be closer to the unrestricted circuit at Montlhéry. At the Montlhéry circuit, Gwenda broke the world 24-hour motor-cycle speed record on a Terrot-JAP.
At Montlhéry, Gwenda met Douglas Hawkes, who became one of her mechanics.
In 1930, Gwenda turned in a speed of 113 mph (182 km/h) in a race-tuned British 3-wheeler created by Morgan Super Sports.
Douglas Hawkes was a director of the Derby engine and car company and was able to source a Miller Special from the United States. In the period between 1930 and 1933, in the Miller-derived car specially prepared by Derby and designated as a Derby-Miller, Gwenda broke the one-mile speed record several times at Montlhéry.
Gwenda also competed on two occasions, with little success, in the 24 Hours of Le Mans event, at the wheel of a Derby car using a Maserati engine. In 1935 she became the fastest woman ever at Brooklands, with a lap speed of 135.95 miles per hour which bettered the previous lap record set by Kay Petre.
Gwenda's affair with Douglas Hawkes resulted in her divorce from Stewart, and her marriage in 1937 to Hawkes as her third husband.
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Women in Motosport
RandomMotosports are full of men. Hopefuly, some women take part of this wonderful sport. I wanted to create this book to show us that women can be in motosports too.
